








Class_ Li J_ 


Book I 




— 


Copyright N° 


COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 











































\ 









































XEbe virtues of Christ Series 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 



Zbc UHrtues of Cbtlst Series 

By 

Rev. Henry C. Schuyler, S. T. L. 


The Courage of Christ 

i6mo. 127 pages, illustrated 


The Charity of Christ 

i6mo 177 pages, illustrated 


The Obedience of Christ 

i6mo. 140 pages, illustrated 


PER VOLUME 

Fifty Cents Net - - - - Postage, Six Cents 
England and the Colonies 
Two Shillings, Sixpence; - Postage, Threepence 


PETER REILLY, PUBLISHER, 

133 NORTH THIRTEENTH STREET, 
PHILADELPHIA 

LONDON:GEORGE KEENER & CO. 

16a Red Lion Square, W. C. 



































































* 
































THE BOY CHRIST 


HOFFMAN 













THE 


Obedience of Christ 


& 

BY 

HENRY Ci SCHUYLER, S. T. L. 

Ii 



PHILADELPHIA: 

PETER REILLY, PUBLISHER 

LONDON: George Keener & Co. 
MCMXI 


Printed in United States 


r-TSO* 


FIRST THOUSAND. 


Copyright, 1911, Peter Reilly 


^ o.co 

©GI.A303058 






a n>. b. c. 


































Nihil Obstat 

JACOBUS P. TURNER, Censor Deputatus 
Imprimatur 

E. F. PRENDERGAST, Archiep. Philadelphiensis 
Die 2 i Junii. 1911 




















CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction—Obedience. . i 

CHAPTER 

I Obedience to Parents. 23 

II Obedience to the State... 65 
III Obedience to God. 108 



























LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

The Boy Christ_ Frontispiece v ' : 

PAGE 

The Holy Family. 24/ 

Christ before Pilate..... 78 

The Babe in the Stable.... 122^ 

















INTRODUCTION 


OBEDIENCE 

E ACH one of us possesses a free will. 
It is to God that we are indebted for 
this priceless gift, all the more precious 
because permanent. For in His goodness 
He has attached the quality of freedom so 
closely to the will that no power, not even 
His own, can separate the one from the 
other. 

He who is all just, who is ever faithful 
to the decrees of His own free will, cannot 
take away from us what He has willed us 
to possess as our own. Much less is it 
possible for man to destroy or harm the 
freedom God has guaranteed to us. Men 
may conquer their fellow-man, make him a 
life-long slave, restrain the liberty of his 


I 


INTRODUCTION 


physical powers, force him to act contrary 
to his will; but never, so long as he pos¬ 
sesses self-conscious existence, can they 
take away from him the faculty of willing 
as he pleases; never can they oblige him to 
will what he is determined not to will. 
While the hand performs the hated task 
commanded by the master, while the back 
bends beneath the yoke of servitude, the 
will always possesses the power to rebel 
against the physical force that controls the 
body. 

Perfect as is the freedom of the will, its 
possession is not for us a certain source of 
true happiness, either in this life or the life 
to come. It is a gift most precious in its 
power for good. It is also appalling in 
its self-contained possibility for evil. By 
means of the same power which enables us 
always to choose what is good, either for 
itself or as a means to a higher good, we 
are also given the opportunity of choosing 
that which is calculated to lead us into life- 


2 


INTRODUCTION 


long habits of sin in this world, and a con¬ 
sequent unhappy existence in eternity. 

And what makes the danger all the 
greater is the presence within us of certain 
natural inclinations towards evil which 
have a strong influence upon the will, with¬ 
out at the same time destroying its free¬ 
dom. 

The will is most delicately adjusted. A 
very trifling influence is able to attract it 
towards evil. The slightest loss of self- 
control, a momentary weakening of that 
spiritual grasp which keeps in restraint the 
restless passions of our lower nature, a 
passing shadow that obscures the vision 
of the soul normally viewing things by the 
light of God’s grace: and, quick as a flash, 
the choice is made, the good is cast aside, 
sin is sought for because of the false happi¬ 
ness it promises, and our will’s freedom 
becomes a curse for us instead of a 
blessing. 

Great favors bring increased respon- 

3 


INTRODUCTION 


sibility. Liberty of the will is an ines¬ 
timable favor; its possession is fraught 
with the highest responsibility. Depending 
on our use of it is nothing less than the 
happiness or misery of our lot in the life to 
come. 

God had a purpose in giving us this per¬ 
fect gift, a gift that makes our wills, in a 
certain sense, like unto His own. The 
whole scheme of Redemption and Salva¬ 
tion presupposes the freedom of the will. 
We were created to give glory to God by 
freely seeking Him as our last end, by 
using our wills in such a manner that we 
might fit ourselves to be His companions 
in a future life. He has given us our 
liberty, desiring, but not forcing, us to use 
it in conformity with His will. In the 
words of Tennyson: 


44 Our wills are ours, we know not how; 
Our wills are ours to make them thine.” 


If we make them God’s by willing only 

4 


INTRODUCTION 


those things that please Him, we shall be 
fitted to live with Him; if we do not, we 
can have no part in His perfect happiness. 
It is for us to choose. What this choice 
should be, common sense leaves us no room 
to doubt. Every one admits the necessity 
of doing God’s will. Yet when it comes 
to the practical test, it is very hard to give 
up our own wills, even in individual, iso¬ 
lated acts, not to speak of making a com¬ 
plete surrender of them and allowing our¬ 
selves to be guided in all important matters 
by the will of another. 

And yet, unless we do make this com¬ 
plete surrender in all that intimately con¬ 
cerns our temporal and eternal happiness, 
we cannot be said to give our wills to God. 
And the surrender, when made, must not 
be a conditional, fitful one, now urging the 
will towards the things that are above, and 
a moment later permitting it to seek the 
things that are below, to be drawn down¬ 
ward by the deceitful beauty of evil. 

5 


INTRODUCTION 

The choice we make should be con¬ 
tinuous, steady, consistent; and it can pos¬ 
sess these qualities only when it crystal¬ 
lizes into a habit or virtue. In order to 
be sure of giving our wills to God without 
reserve and choosing only those things 
that please Him, we must acquire the habit 
of following the guidance of His will as it 
is shown to us by His representatives, our 
superiors in family, civic or religious life; 
of following it not merely because we see 
that it is advantageous for us to follow it 
in this or that particular case, but prin¬ 
cipally because it is the will of a superior 
manifesting itself in various direct and in¬ 
direct commands. This is the virtue of 
obedience. It is only by practicing this 
virtue that we give our wills to God, more 
or less completely in proportion to the 
greater or less facility with which we obey 
the commands of those who are the rightly 
constituted channels through which an 
all-wise Creator directs His creatures. 

6 

K \ /\ Z\ / 

■y \ /%/ 


INTRODUCTION 


Obedience, then, is the virtue by which 
we comply with the command of a superior, 
because it is a command. The latter part 
of this definition is of the utmost impor¬ 
tance. To possess the virtue of obedience 
in its entirety, we must have the intention 
of fulfilling the superior’s will, otherwise 
there is great danger that we might not 
submit to a command unless we see the ad¬ 
vantage of obeying it. 

If we are in the habit of rendering obe¬ 
dience to rightly-constituted authority 
principally because it is our duty to do so, 
we can be sure that our obedience will be 
steady and continuous. If, on the contrary, 
we do not possess this essential motive, it 
is very likely that many commands will be 
totally disregarded, or only partially com¬ 
plied with, simply because it will not seem 
necessary or useful for us to submit to 
them. 

Did we not have the intention of obey¬ 
ing a command because it expresses the 

7 

A A 

v Vk M r ....^ 


INTRODUCTION 


will of one who directs us, our obedience 
could hardly be classed as a special virtue. 
It would not endure very long, since it 
could not stand the strain of very many 
commands contrary to nature, unless fear 
of punishment forced us to keep within 
the letter of the law. 

In thus speaking so highly of the motive 
or intention, that part of obedience which 
is invisible, we do not mean to underes¬ 
timate the external visible act that is com¬ 
manded. Without this there could of 
course, generally speaking, be no obedience. 
To do what is commanded, and to do it 
well, promptly, exactly, is the fruit, the 
final unfolding of the virtue. Still, unless 
the external act has as its foundation sub¬ 
mission of the will and interior recogni¬ 
tion of the command as a command, it is 
like Dead Sea fruit. Whatever beauty it 
possesses is merely external and short¬ 
lived, having nothing solid or permanent 
beneath it. 


8 


INTRODUCTION 


Submission of the will is therefore of 
the utmost importance. The very life of 
the virtue depends upon it. But if we wish 
this life to be broad and deep and lofty, if 
we wish it to expand and grow stronger 
and more full of eternal possibilities, we 
must strive as far as we are able, to see the 
wisdom of the command given to us, to 
have our intellect as well as our will, in 
accord with the one who gives the com¬ 
mand. 

It is not absolutely necessary for us to do 
this in order to possess the virtue of obe¬ 
dience in its essence. Indeed, it is at times 
impossible for us to see the necessity or ad¬ 
vantage of obeying certain laws. For our 
minds do not possess that freedom which 
our wills enjoy. They are naturally drawn 
to give approval of what is represented to 
them as true. And if, through limited in¬ 
telligence, lack of necessary information, 
we cannot realize the advisability of doing 
a certain thing, it is impossible, while our 
9 


INTRODUCTION 


state of mind remains unchanged, to see 
the command as it is seen by the one who 
gives it. In this case, if we submit to it 
against our judgment, we are without 
doubt practicing obedience, and indeed with 
added merit. 

But it is very hard to be continually 
using the violence necessary to force the 
will to go against the reason, even though 
the latter be wrongly or insufficiently in¬ 
formed. Evidence of the internal struggle 
must eventually be seen on the surface, and 
the external acts by which we obey the com¬ 
mand will not as a rule be performed 
so promptly and cheerfully as they might 
be. 

But although we cannot force the mind 
to go against the evidence as it is presented 
to us; although we cannot make it place 
before the will a certain command as ad¬ 
vantageous, when it can see no need for it, 
and perhaps suspects it to be dangerous, 
still we are able, by using the power of our 
io 


INTRODUCTION 


free wills, to force it to look for reasons 
justifying the command. 

If we are sufficiently humble, if we have 
a practical realization of how limited and 
imperfect our knowledge is, and how apt 
it is to be clouded by preconceived opinions, 
if we are willing to admit that a man is not 
always a capable judge in his own case, 
and that the presumption is in favor of the 
one in authority as better qualified to see 
whether the command is good for us or 
not, it will not be impossible, at least in 
most cases, to seek and find an explanation 
that will change our view of things and 
lead us to obey cheerfully an order that 
appeared at first most unreasonable. 

If we could always bring our minds to 
see the advantage of obeying the commands 
given us by those in authority, we would 
have comparatively little difficulty in per¬ 
fecting ourselves in the virtue of obedience. 
As a matter of fact, however, men are more 
prone to pick flaws in the laws that bind 


II 


INTRODUCTION 

them, than to seek for reasons justifying 
them. 

It cannot be denied that there are times 
when those in authority abuse the power 
lodged in them, and seek to curtail arbi¬ 
trarily, and therefore unjustly, the liberty 
of those whom they rule. Naturally men 
seek to throw off this unlawful yoke. But 
if they do succeed in freeing themselves, 
they are very apt to become so intoxicated 
with their new-found freedom as to abuse 
it and go to the opposite extreme. 

Impatient of all restraint they often de¬ 
grade liberty into mere license to do what¬ 
ever pleases them. As a result they find 
themselves falling into a state of lawless¬ 
ness destined to bring about even worse 
evils than a condition of servitude. In our 
age the pendulum is slowly swinging to the 
former extreme. Personal, private utility, 
more or less exclusive of the general good, 
is growing to be the only, or at least the 
principal standard, by which many men 


12 


INTRODUCTION 


measure the degree of submission they are 
willing to give to those in authority. 
Higher motives than self-interest are in 
grave danger of disappearing altogether as 
far as the vast majority of men is con¬ 
cerned. 

Speak to people nowadays about seeing 
God in those who govern us, and they will 
laugh at you—or pity you. No doubt some 
of those who hold public positions are un¬ 
worthy of the office they occupy. But yet, 
their inefficiency, or criminal self-seeking, 
does not weaken the force of that funda¬ 
mental principle which we call heaven’s first 
law. 

There must be order in the world of 
rational beings, as well as in the inorganic 
world. Take away the perfect subordina¬ 
tion of the different bodies of the universe, 
the admirable order that exists in the ar¬ 
rangement and motion of the earth and 
moon and the various stars; let one of these 
bodies refuse to obey the laws that govern 
13 


INTRODUCTION 


it, if such a thing were possible, and the 
whole system would be reduced to chaos. 

Man is no exception to the universal rule. 
So numerous are the relationships existing 
between him and his fellow-beings, that 
he cannot move outside a certain limited 
sphere of action, the sphere of law and 
order, without trespassing on the rights of 
another, without bringing disorder where 
order reigned before. Self-interest, then, 
even if he had in view only the happiness 
of this present life, should lead him to yield 
obedience when and where it is due. 

How true is this also in his relationship 
with God, with the life to come. If un¬ 
restrained liberty is dangerous when there 
is question of attaining a temporary state 
of peace and contentment in this world, 
how much graver the danger when we are 
striving to gain an unending life of happi¬ 
ness in the world to come. In the former 
case a mistake involves penalties of a 
passing nature; in the latter, an error un- 
14 


INTRODUCTION 


corrected leads to eternal misery. How 
much better it is to submit our God-given 
freedom to the direction of authority, both 
in temporal and spiritual matters. To 
obey with a proper motive, to see God in 
those who govern us, to submit our wills to 
His as revealed in those whom He has 
placed over us, with or without our con¬ 
currence; this is the only safe course of 
conduct for us. 

To act thus is far from degrading. It 
is a free surrender we are making. We 
know that no man of himself has a right 
to be our master. The authority possessed 
by the one who governs us is not his own 
but comes from God. When we recognize 
this authority by yielding to it, we are in 
reality obeying God and looking after our 
highest interests in the best possible 
manner. The most intense selfishness could 
not prompt a purer, a wiser plan for ad¬ 
vancing self-interests than this. 

To give us an example; to prove to us 
i5 


INTRODUCTION 


that submission of the will is no degrada¬ 
tion, the Son of God has taken human na¬ 
ture and lived a life of perfect obedience. 
He has entered into new relationships: with 
God as His father, to whom He was 
“ obedient unto death, even the death of 
the cross; ” with two human beings, Mary 
and Joseph, to whom “ He was subject;” 
and with the civil authority to which he 
offered the most exact submission that any 
subject ever gave to his ruler, rendering 
unto Caesar in every case “ the things that 
belong to Caesar.” 

His was a most exalted, most pure 
human nature. If perfect obedience could 
in no wise lessen the dignity of this human 
nature, not to speak of the Divine nature 
which existed side by side with it in the 
One Person who lived and worked and was 
obedient, how can we with our many fail¬ 
ings, with our nature perfect only in its 
possibilities, hold that obedience is incon¬ 
sistent with the highest form of freedom, 
16 


INTRODUCTION 


or degrading to the natural dignity of man? 

In obedience, as in the other virtues, we 
find our best model in our Divine Lord. 
Being true God and true man, He possessed 
a human as well as a divine will. Although 
these two wills existed in one and the same 
Person, they were independent of each 
other in everything that could limit the true 
and perfect freedom of the human will. 
The latter belonged to Christ to do with as 
He pleased. But He “ did not please Him¬ 
self,” because He came down from heaven, 
as He Himself tells us, “ not to do my own 
will, but the will of Him that sent me.” He 
could not sin because the human nature 
assumed by the Son of God became inca¬ 
pable of sinning by reason of the fulness of 
grace acting efficaciously in the human soul 
of the God-man from the very moment the 
Word was made flesh. 

Yet after all, this does not argue a lack 
of free will in our Master. For sin, as St. 
Thomas tells us, is rather a defect of free- 
17 


INTRODUCTION 


dom, a sign, not an essential part of it; as 
disease is a sign, not a necessary consti¬ 
tuent, of life. We could with no more 
reason argue that our Saviour did not pos¬ 
sess free will, because He was unable to 
sin, than we could say a man did not pos¬ 
sess vitality simply because no disease 
could afflict him so long as the various parts 
of his body fulfilled their functions per¬ 
fectly. 

As the presence of disease in the latter 
case argues imperfection, and its absence 
shows perfection; so sin in the former 
case would show an imperfect use of the 
will, while its absence denotes a perfect, 
and therefore a free, use of the will, be¬ 
cause no will can act perfectly unless it is 
free. 

No imperfection may be admitted in the 
human nature of our Lord. It had its 
limitations, it is true, but they were the 
limitations of a perfect human nature, 
which would cease to be human, and would 
18 


INTRODUCTION 


become divine, if it were without some 
limitations, for only the Divine nature is 
infinite or without limit. 

We could just as well say that the Divine 
Will is not free because it cannot choose 
evil, as maintain the absence of freedom 
in the human will of Christ simply because 
this will is without the defect that the 
ability to commit sin implies. Absolutely 
and intrinsically, the human will of our 
Saviour at all times possesses the freedom 
to act or not to act. This constitutes the 
essence of perfect freedom. 

Often the Master speaks of doing the will 
of His Father. He refers to the expression 
of this will as a command, “ As the Father 
hath given me commandment, so do I.” 
And again, “. . . . as I have kept my 
Father’s commandments.” A command 
implies freedom on the part of the one who 
obeys, otherwise it is not a command in the 
true sense of the word. Moreover, the 
obedience which our Lord so clearly claims 
19 


INTRODUCTION 


as the moving principle of His life could 
not be a true obedience, did He not possess 
perfect freedom of the will. 

Often the Master speaks of doing the will 
Model for us in the practice of obedience. 
He performs the will of His Father in 
heaven, and that also of His mother and 
foster-father, and of other lawful superiors, 
with a true freedom, and not automatically, 
as a machine, impelled by an iron fatalism 
that would take away all merit from His 
actions, and from His life one of its pri¬ 
mary motives—to serve in all things as our 
Model. 

Without the quality of freedom, the ex¬ 
ample of our Saviour might indeed be most 
beautiful to look upon. But its beauty 
would be the cold, classic beauty of the 
marble statue, lifted above us, to be ad¬ 
mired, it is true, but lacking that warmth, 
that human element, that sympathetic call 
to imitation, which could be possessed only 
by reason of an essential similarity to our 
20 


INTRODUCTION 

nature, wide as may be the gap that 
stretches between us and the realization of 
our Ideal. 

We are called upon to render obedience 
to at least three distinct classes of superiors: 
parental, civil and religious. Our Saviour’s 
life teaches us many lessons in the obedience 
necessary to perfect these three relation¬ 
ships. We shall treat, therefore, of His 
obedience to parents, to the State and to 
God. 


21 


* 


Cbe ©bebiettce of Christ 


CHAPTER I 

OBEDIENCE TO PARENTS 


“ And he went down with them, and came to 
Nazareth: and was subject to them.”—Luke 

ii, 5 1 * 


S O forcibly does the childhood of Jesus 
emphasize the reality of His sacred 
humanity, so touchingly and tenderly 
human is this phase of His life, that one 
must be sure in his faith and sincere in his 
love ere he venture to penetrate the privacy 
of the hidden life, and there gaze upon 
the divine Child and Youth of Nazareth, 
nestling as a babe in Mary’s arms, playing 
with little children by the fountain, occu¬ 
pying Himself with the humblest of duties 
of daily life, working as a carpenter side by 
side with Joseph, and at all times yielding 
perfect obedience to His mother and foster- 
father. 


23 



THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


But one whose motives are pure, who 
searches the secrets of the thirty years with 
the reverent gaze of a true Christian, need 
have no fear in picturing to himself in 
vivid colors and full details all the beautiful 
incidents of the Son’s life in the home of 
His parents. 

The public ministry of the Master is 
filled to overflowing with examples for our 
imitation; but few, if any, of them have a 
more forcible or a farther reaching appeal 
to mankind than the conduct of the Child 
Jesus towards Mary and Joseph. 

The duties and trials of later life are 
graver and more arduous, it is true. Be¬ 
cause of them we stand in absolute need 
of the support and direction given us by a 
Divine Model. But it is during the years 
of childhood and youth that there is the 
greatest need for the guidance of good ex¬ 
ample, especially the perfect example of a 
Divine Child. The virtues of the boy 
form the character of the man. If the early 
24 



THE HOLY FAMILY 


MURILLO 

























































































OBEDIENCE TO PARENTS 


growth of these virtues be dwarfed or ill- 
directed, the example of the Master will be 
followed but feebly in after life. How use¬ 
ful it is therefore, and how very necessary, 
to keep before the minds of children the 
example of all the virtues, and especially of 
obedience, given us by the Divine Son of 
Nazareth. 

The effect of following this Model is 
evident in the more perfect relations of the 
child not only with his parents, but also 
with the civil and ecclesiastical authority. 
Obedience towards legitimate authority in 
Church or State is weak or strong, as a 
rule, in proportion to the obedience of the 
child to its parents. 

In view of this fact, the importance of 
our Saviour’s life at Nazareth cannot be 
overestimated, because it supplho a model 
of right conduct for every child, thus giving 
a primary and essential impulse to the for¬ 
mation of the good Christian, and, con¬ 
sequently of the good citizen of later years. 

25 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


Without taking into account, for the 
present, the lesson of obedience taught us 
by the single sentence of St. Luke de¬ 
scribing the relations of Jesus with His 
parents, “ He was subject to them,” and 
leaving aside the recorded manifestations 
of His filial affection, we can readily form 
an estimate of what His conduct as a son 
must have been from His views on the sa¬ 
credness of the family, especially of the 
relationship between parents and children. 
We may make this inference without the 
least hesitation, because, being God, He 
must have always acted in a manner per¬ 
fectly consistent with His principles as ex¬ 
pressed by His teachings. 

It is this relationship of parents with 
children which He uses to illustrate and ex¬ 
plain the love our Heavenly Father has for 
us, and by implication, the love we His 
children should render Him in return. 

When He takes this view, He gives in¬ 
describable nobility to the relationship be- 
26 


OBEDIENCE TO PARENTS 

tween parents and children. He can think 
of nothing loftier in the natural order. It 
is the height of love that exists between 
creatures. And so, reaching this limit, and 
taking it as a form of comparison, He soars 
aloft to the supernatural, and strives by 
words well fitted for our feeble intelligence, 
to bridge over and explain the immeasur¬ 
able interval between it and the love of an 
Infinite Parent: “ What man is there among 
you, of whom if his son shall ask bread, 
will he reach him a stone? Or if he shall 
ask him a fish, will he reach him a serpent? 
If you then being evil, know how to give 
good gifts to your children: how much more 
will your Father who is in heaven give good 
things to them that ask him?” Could we 
wish any more illustrious sanction of the 
natural affection between parents and 
children than this given by Christ Him¬ 
self? 

Later, in the tenth chapter of St. Mat¬ 
thew, we again find evidence of this same 
27 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


lofty ideal of filial and parental love. Our 
Lord is seeking for words to express the 
nature of the love that men should have 
for Himself, and once more He uses the 
family as a basis of illustration: “He that 
loveth father or mother more than me, is 
not worthy of me.” 

He makes the sacrifice of family love the 
final and severest test of devotion to Him: 
“ And every one that hath left home, or 
brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, 
or wife, or children, or lands for My name’s 
sake; shall receive an hundredfold, and 
shall possess life everlasting.” And in St. 
Luke we find a practical illustration of what 
our Lord demanded of those who would 
choose His immediate service. To one 
who wished to take leave of his family 
before following the Master, He speaks 
thus: “ No man putting his hand to the 
plough, and looking back, is fit for the 
kingdom of God.” 

The natural affection of the Child Jesus, 
28 


OBEDIENCE TO PARENTS 


could we consider this as acting by itself, 
would have been sufficient to ensure an 
ideal obedience to Mary and Joseph, be¬ 
cause this natural affection must have 
been perfect in its own order, and perfect 
affection does not permit self-interest or 
caprice to interfere with the mutual rela¬ 
tionship between the one who loves and 
the objects of this love; such an inter¬ 
ference as takes place, for example, when 
a child’s self-will causes disobedience, or 
his too great self-love causes a lack of 
respect for parents. 

With us it is different. Even in the case 
of the most tenderly affectionate son or 
daughter, it is very possible that this filial 
love will weaken and permit an act of dis¬ 
obedience. Suppose that the father is an 
habitual drunkard. As the child grows 
older and more observant, it is not likely 
that mere natural affection will lead him to 
render the same exact obedience he would 
give to a model father. Or, to take an- 
29 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


other case, filial affection can hardly stand 
the strain of continued neglect, and, perhaps, 
of violent abuse. If parents habitually ill- 
treat a child, his affection, at least in most 
cases, will be lessened in so marked a degree 
that it would form a weak and certainly in¬ 
sufficient motive for true obedience. 

And then as the child grows up to young 
manhood or womanhood, self-interest and 
thoughtlessness are very apt to lead to dis¬ 
obedience, unless there is present some 
more powerful and permanent motive for 
obedience than natural filial affection. 

What this motive is we can readily learn 
from the life of our Lord. His love for 
His parents was more than natural. It had, 
it is true, considering it from the human 
side, its foundation in the nature of Christ 
as man; but from the very beginning this 
natural affection had been raised to a super¬ 
natural state. 

The Child Jesus loved Mary and Joseph 
with a supernatural love. All the elements 
30 


OBEDIENCE TO PARENTS 


of a true, natural affection were present, 
without any of its imperfections. But in 
addition to these there was the element of 
grace. The love of our Lord for His 
parents led Him to see in them the two 
human beings who were closest to Him in 
the natural order. But it also led Him to 
see in them His divinely appointed guar¬ 
dians, receiving their authority over Him 
from His heavenly Father. 

This it was that gave to His obedience 
the fullness and beauty and permanence 
that no merely natural motive could have 
afforded. He loved His parents with all 
the intensity of a pure, natural affection; 
but because this love was enriched by 
grace, that priceless element of supernatural 
\ love, there flowed from it the essential 
quality of respect, without which there can 
be no genuine, lasting obedience. 

Only that child who sees in his parents 
the presence of an authority more than 
human, and who hears in their commands 
31 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


a voice above the natural; only such a child 
will practice faithfully the virtue of filial 
obedience. 

How plainly does our Lord emphasize 
the necessity of this respect, and its superi¬ 
ority as a motive for obedience over natural 
affection, when He submits Himself to 
Joseph as well as to Mary. “ He was sub¬ 
ject to them,” to both Joseph and Mary, 
even though He could not have had, natu¬ 
rally speaking, the same filial affection for 
Joseph as He possessed in regard to His 
Blessed Mother, since Joseph was only His 
foster-father, and not His real father. 
And yet there can be no doubt that His 
obedience to the latter was just as exact as 
to the former. 

It might be urged against this argument 
that Joseph was a model parent and never 
imposed any command that was not per¬ 
fectly agreeable to the divine Child, and 
also that he never manifested any of those 
traits of selfishness and cruelty and neglect 
32 


OBEDIENCE TO PARENTS 


too often characteristic of other, less saintly 
fathers; and that, therefore, the Child Jesus 
could not help showing him the respect he 
deserved to receive. Arguing along the 
same line, it might be said that our Saviour’s 
affection and respect for His mother were 
just what we would expect as a return for 
her goodness and self-sacrifice. 

But it must be remembered that the Son 
of Mary was God as well as man, and that 
at all times He was conscious of His Divin¬ 
ity and His infinite superiority over even 
the most perfect of human beings. Al¬ 
though many modern, non-Catholic writers 
on the Life of Christ hold the opposite 
opinion, there is not the slightest reason for 
denying that our Lord realized, even as a 
boy, that He was the true Son of God made 
flesh. For the Divine nature could not sub¬ 
sist side by side with the human nature and 
form one Person with it, without the human 
mind of Christ realizing this close union. 
The reality of His Divinity and the nature 
33 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


of His Mission did not gradually dawn 
upon Him, but from the beginning were part 
of His knowledge, even as man. 

And so the Infant in the arms of Its 
mother, the little Boy clasping the hand of 
Mary as He walked by her side, the Youth 
working with Joseph in the carpenter’s 
shop, knew the immeasurable gulf that 
stretched between Himself and those whose 
commands He so perfectly obeyed. Even 
though the ones who gave the orders were 
the best parents the world could possibly 
contain, still there was an infinite humilia¬ 
tion in God becoming obedient to His own 
creatures, and practicing this obedience in 
all things, even the most trivial. 

He who commands the universe, who 
could summon the hosts of heaven to do 
His will, is bidden by a creature to go on 
an errand, to carry a message, to help 
put in order the little home at Nazareth— 
and He does as He is told. He who causes 
the tree to grow is commanded by a car- 
34 


OBEDIENCE TO PARENTS 


penter to form from its trunk a table or 
stool—and humbly He performs the task. 
The arm that sustains the world, now wields 
the saw and hammer at the behest of a 
father whose very command could not have 
been given without the help of the Child 
who obeys him. 

Is there nothing wonderful in all this? 
And mark the manner in which the obe¬ 
dience is rendered—promptly and perfectly, 
cheerfully and humbly, no matter whether 
the task be trifling or important, laborious 
or easy. The Sacred Text tells us “ He 
went down to Nazareth.” Down from 
Jerusalem, the great and holy city of 
Israel, to the humble village of Nazareth, 
a place held in contempt by the Jews; down 
from the temple with its pomp and mag¬ 
nificence, its gold and incense, to the house 
of Joseph and Mary with its poverty and 
obscurity; down from the midst of the 
Doctors of the Law who had been “ as¬ 
tonished at his wisdom and answers,” to 

35 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


the ignorant villagers who treated Him as 
they would treat the average boy of His 
years and position. And all this He did 
at the command of His mother and foster- 
father, who took Him away from the temple 
where they had found Him after a search 
of three days. 

And at Nazareth He was “ subject to 
them.” This is the history of the next 
eighteen years. He “ advanced in wisdom 
and age and grace with God and man,” but 
still He was subject to His parents. He 
has long since reached and passed the age 
at which children feel that they are freed 
from parental control; Joseph dies and 
Mary is left alone with her Son, upon whom 
falls the burden of supporting the little 
home; the early years of manhood are fast 
slipping by; He sees the fields ripening for 
His harvest of souls—but still He remains 
subject. 

As the months and years go by, millions 
of His fallen brothers are plunging deeper 

36 


OBEDIENCE TO PARENTS 


and deeper into the depths of unbelief and 
immorality. Souls are falling headlong 
to eternal ruin. Every moment adds its 
quota to the crimes that cry to heaven for 
vengeance. Every moment the faith of the 
chosen race itself is being sapped and eaten 
away at its very heart’s core by the hypoc¬ 
risy and proud self-sufficiency of the leaders 
of the people, those who are mightiest in 
Israel. And still the Son of God holds 
Himself aloof from those who so sorely 
need His message; still the Son of Mary 
yields obedience to His mother. 

To the opportunist, to the man who looks 
only to the present and sees but the surface 
of things, this course of conduct seems 
foolish, if not worse than foolish. And yet 
the lesson taught us by these years of sub¬ 
jection and hidden life is a most important 
part of our Lord’s plan for our Redemp¬ 
tion and Salvation. It is the foundation 
of His life-work. The active ministry, the 
passion and death are, in the divine econ- 

37 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


omy, built upon it, and need this all-sus¬ 
taining basis for their future efficacy. 

Men who were rushing into eternal ruin 
while their God and Saviour lived His 
hidden life of obedience, were not without 
sufficient means of saving themselves, did 
they but choose to make proper use of these 
means. The world had waited thousands 
of years for the coming of the Messiah. 
What are a few years more in the eternal 
life of God? If it were cruel to wait thirty 
years, what could we say of the many cen¬ 
turies’ probation from the Fall until the 
opening of the public ministry of God’s 
Son? 

Obedience, then, is the principal lesson of 
the thirty years, and especially of the latter 
part of this period, when the Youth of 
Nazareth had become a Man. For there 
could be no natural reason for the Master’s 
remaining inactive once He had attained 
the full growth and development of man¬ 
hood, and was, therefore, even in the eyes 

38 


OBEDIENCE TO PARENTS 


of those who recognized in Him no super¬ 
natural aptitude, sufficiently fitted for the 
performance of His Mission. 

His life of retirement and subjection 
during the latter years serves to emphasize 
His purpose of inculcating the necessity 
of subjection and self-restraint. Being 
God, He was from the beginning fitted to 
take up His active work. In the eyes of the 
world He was prepared for this task many 
years before He began it. Yet He chose to 
remain at Nazareth, not to prepare Himself, 
but to teach us obedience. 

It is true He teaches us other lessons by 
means of the hidden life. All the virtues 
are there present. But ever through the 
perfect and rich-toned harmony they form 
there steals the same, single theme—obe¬ 
dience. At every turn and every moment, 
we feel its persistent, pulsating rhythm, and 
hear its sweet but strong tones sounding 
clearly above the rest, and bearing to the 
depths of our hearts, in its fullest beauty 
39 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


and power, the lesson of obedience and the 
value it possesses in the estimation of the 
Master. 

But right in the midst of this harmony 
of the hidden life, with its predominant 
theme of obedience, there sounds forth a 
chord so strangely different, at first hear¬ 
ing, from what precedes and from what 
follows, that it seems like a dissonance to 
every heart save that which is attuned to 
the lofty, spiritual music of the Master’s 
mission. 

None save those who possess a deep, 
sympathetic appreciation of our Lord’s 
purpose can grasp the mystic meaning of 
this brief episode of the thirty years that 
seems not only to lack the beauty brought 
to the hidden life by the note of obedience, 
but even to strike a positive discord by 
reason of an apparent lack of filial respect 
and affection. 

We refer to the single recorded instance 
of our Lord’s appearing in public during 

40 


OBEDIENCE TO PARENTS 


His life at Nazareth—the journey to Jeru¬ 
salem to assist at the celebration of the 
Pasch, when the Child, then twelve years 
old, leaves His parents without their knowl¬ 
edge and remains with the Doctors in the 
temple. This event is not spoken of here as 
affording an example of our Saviour’s 
obedience to Mary and Joseph, for we 
readily admit that it does not directly illus¬ 
trate the exercise of this virtue. Neither, 
on the other hand, is there anything in the 
Child’s conduct on this occasion that would 
give the least ground for judging Him to 
be lacking in obedience. But beneath the 
appearance of disobedience and disrespect 
there lie hidden other lessons than those 
which inculcate the virtue we are discuss¬ 
ing, lessons which we, with our limited in¬ 
telligence, can but feebly grasp. 

The twelfth anniversary of our Lord’s 
birth has come and gone, and a great 
change has it brought into His life, so far 
as His position under the Law is concerned. 
41 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


He has now attained His majority, has 
become a Son of the Law, subject to all 
its observances, particularly the various 
prayers and feasts. He must also from 
now on make the annual journeys to Jeru¬ 
salem prescribed for every true Israelite. 

As the Festival of the Pasch approaches, 
the members of the little family make their 
preparations for the first compulsory ob¬ 
servance of this great event by their Son. 
Their neighbors, too, are getting ready for 
the journey. And early one bright spring 
morning, when the sun has barely risen 
above the hills that border their little 
village, the company of pilgrims starts 
forth southward toward the city of Jerusa¬ 
lem. 

Slowly at first they pick their way down 
the narrow paths on the hillsides to the fer¬ 
tile plain of Jezrael that opens out so in¬ 
vitingly before them, its broad expanse of 
verdure dotted with flowers and watered 
by the Kishon with its many tributaries. 

42 


OBEDIENCE TO PARENTS 


Reaching this plain their journey is less 
toilsome, their progress more rapid. 

For three days the journey continues. 
For the most part the way is pleasant, wind¬ 
ing through fertile plains and shady valleys. 
Here and there appear clumps of fig and 
olive trees. Overhead stretches the deep 
blue sky of the East. The sun’s rays give 
generous promise of the coming summer. 
Birds fill the quiet air with a melody more 
joyful than usual, as if newer life were 
given to them as well as to Nature’s mute 
offspring. Breezes from the West, from 
the sail-dotted sea, breathe gently on the 
cheeks of the pilgrims as they plod along. 
Their faces are bright and cheerful, reflect¬ 
ing the glory and peace of Nature. And 
no countenance is more serene and calmly 
happy than Mary’s. Yet who can read the 
secret thoughts of her mother’s heart as her 
glance rests upon the Child walking by her 
side, or turning to speak to a nearby group 
of pilgrims. 


43 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


Years ago an old man had told her of a 
sword of sorrow that was to pierce her 
heart. Has she a premonition that this 
same sword may very soon bring days of 
keen anguish into her life, now for many 
years so peaceful and free from great 
sorrow ? 

As she looks upon Jesus, she feels that 
He belongs to her less now than before, 
that His position henceforth as a Son of 
the Law puts a new relationship into His 
life. Of His love for her she feels as sure 
as ever. It is in no way lessened, nor 
could it be, by any work the Saviour will 
be called upon to perform. Yet this new 
responsibility He has assumed fills her with 
a nameless dread. For it brings His mis¬ 
sion forcibly to her mind, a mission that 
must at some time separate her from the 
One she loves most in heaven and on earth. 
When? Ah, it is the uncertainty of the 
dreaded time that brings a momentary pallor 


44 


OBEDIENCE TO PARENTS 


to her cheeks, and causes a dull, heavy 
burden to press upon her heart. 

Again and again, when the feeling conies 
upon her, she steals a glance of love at her 
Son, and the sight of His countenance and 
the sound of His voice bring a torrent of 
happiness into her soul. Still, the thought 
of the pain that has been prophesied will 
not disappear altogether from her mind. 
The natural love of a mother makes her 
long for a continuation of the past years 
of perfect happiness. But the obedience 
she has vowed to the Father, whose humble 
handmaid she still is, and the love she bears 
for the human beings the Son must redeem, 
steel her will and give the tranquillity of 
fortitude to her heart. 

Many a mother, under different condi¬ 
tions, of course, has felt that same sense 
of pain at the thought of an impending 
departure from the parental home of a son 
or daughter who has become a part of her 
life. Many have felt this keen thrust of 

45 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


sorrow’s sword years even before the blow 
actually falls. Many, as they watched with 
loving pride the child grow up to young 
manhood or womanhood, have felt, at 
every new revelation of developing strength 
and beauty and grace, the thrill of happiness 
that filled their hearts strangely dulled by 
a throb of nameless pain. Many, thus feel¬ 
ing beforehand the agony of separation, 
have turned their thoughts backward and 
sought in the memory of past unclouded 
happiness a relief from the dread of future 
sorrow. Would that they could be 
strengthened by this recollection and not 
sigh vainly for a continuance of that life of 
union which is, after all, given to them only 
that they might help prepare their children 
for the real struggle of life. For this 
struggle demands, as a rule, even when 
there is no question of vocation to God’s 
service, a practical separation of children 
and narents! 

At the close of the third dav, the pil- 

46 


OBEDIENCE TO PARENTS 

grims, traveling at an ordinary rate of 
speed, would reach Jerusalem. Of what 
took place during the eight days of the 
Pasch we have no account, save that the 
Holy Family spent in that city the full time 
required by the Law, and then started with 
the other pilgrims on their return journey. 
And now occurs the striking event of this 
paschal pilgrimage: Jesus disappears. His 
parents lose all trace of Him. 

How this could happen, notwithstanding 
the most loving and careful watch, Joseph 
and Mary kept over their Son, can easily be 
explained. There must have been present 
in the city for the Paschal celebration many 
thousand strangers. Unavoidable confu¬ 
sion would result at the departure of so 
great a number Then, too, it was only 
natural that people in the same caravan 
would form at times separate groups, 
distinct from family divisions. Old friends 
and acquaintances who never met save on 
occasions of this kind would seize the op- 
47 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


portunity for conversing with each other. 
The children, too, would very likely seek 
each other’s company. And in view of the 
fact that the stopping places at night-time 
were always fixed beforehand, parents 
would feel no alarm at being separated 
during the march from the children who 
accompanied them, and who were old 
enough to be trusted away from immediate 
and continuous parental watchfulness. 

Whatever may have been the manner of 
the Child’s disappearance, of one thing we 
may feel sure: it was not the result of care¬ 
lessness on the part of Mary and Joseph. 
And when in the evening they arrived at 
the place decided upon for the night’s en¬ 
campment, the alarm felt by our Blessed 
Mother at the loss of her Son was unmixed 
with any regret at not having watched over 
Him carefully enough. 

At first the distracted parents seek for 
Him among their kinsfolk and acquaint¬ 
ances, with ever increasing alarm as they 
48 


OBEDIENCE TO PARENTS 

meet with the same lack of news from each 
of them. Then with heavy hearts, but hasty 
footsteps, they go through the whole camp. 
No result. It is too late to turn back now; 
they are forced to wait for the morning. 
How long the night must have seemed to 
them! 

Early the next day they retrace their 
steps to the city, inquiring about Jesus from 
each group of travelers they meet. No one 
has seen Him. In Jerusalem they continue 
the search with no better results. Imagine 
the feelings of Mary. Never before had 
her Child been absent from her for so long 
a time. Almost constantly had He been 
with her in their home at Nazareth. Even 
the slightest separation had seemed to her an 
age; and always the sound of His returning 
footsteps had sent a new thrill of love 
through her heart. 

Now for two whole days and nights she 
seeks the lost Son, asking everywhere con¬ 
cerning His whereabouts, going through 
49 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


every street in the city. At length, on the 
morning of the third day, almost in despair, 
she goes to the temple: and there she finds 
her lost Child, “ sitting in the midst of the 
doctors, hearing them and asking them 
questions.” 

It was in one of the outer halls of the 
temple that Jesus was found. The fact 
that He was permitted to be present there 
amidst the Doctors of the Law need not 
astonish us. It was customary for those 
who had attained their legal majority and 
who wished to become more proficient in 
the Law, to assemble in one of the large 
outer halls of the temple during the celebra¬ 
tion of the great festivals, and there listen 
to the discourses of those who were author¬ 
ized to teach. The auditors were either 
standing or seated on the ground. The 
Doctors occupied the seats. The asking of 
questions was encouraged, as it promoted 
an increase of interest, and also gave the 
Doctors a chance to show off their learn- 
50 


OBEDIENCE TO PARENTS 


ing. Those of the audience who manifested 
an unusual knowledge of the questions 
under discussion were often invited to leave 
their places and take a seat with the 
Doctors. 

When Mary comes into the hall, it is, as 
St. Luke tells us, in this place of honor that 
she finds Jesus seated, so marvellous is the 
knowledge of the Law manifested by Him: 
“ And all that heard Him were astonished 
at His wisdom and his answers.” 

Mary and Joseph in wonder stand gazing 
at their child. It is the mother who first 
speaks, and the words that come from her 
seem to imply a lack of respect and obe¬ 
dience, or at least of filial affection, on the 
part of Jesus, “ Son, why hast thou done so 
to us ? behold, thy father and I have sought 
thee sorrowing.” But Mary knows too 
well the love and sinlessness of her Child 
to be led even by the deepest sorrow into 
any feeling, however fleeting, that the 
Divine Boy could treat her in any way 

51 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


other than as a perfect son would treat 
His mother. Nor would her speech, over 
which she kept so constant and careful a 
guard, convey a reproach that her heart 
did not feel, even though the words she ut¬ 
tered, viewed apart from the speaker and 
the circumstances, might appear to lend 
themselves to such an interpretation. 

There is undoubtedly a note of complaint 
in the question. But it is the loving, 
respectful complaint of one whose heart 
has been rent by anguish at the three days’ 
separation; of one who, while recognizing 
the perfect right of her Son to depart from 
her for as long as He pleases, still wishes it 
would be God’s will that she could have 
Him with her always. 

And is not this the perfection of love? 
Is it not what the true Christian strives for 
—an unending union with his Maker? Is 
not God pleased when we complain of His 
apparent absence from our hearts, when 
He withdraws His sensible consolation and, 
52 


OBEDIENCE TO PARENTS 


to try us, leaves us without a feeling of His 
presence within us? Is it not a proof of 
affection when the spirit groans in the 
bondage of the flesh and longs for the time 
when it shall see no obstacle between it and 
the Being it loves? No, the words of Mary 
are not reproachful, not complaining in any 
sense that would imply a defect either in a 
mother’s love or a Son’s obedience. 

And now we have another difficulty to 
overcome, another objection to answer, in 
the response of Jesus: “ How is it that you 
sought me? did you not know that I must 
be about My father’s business ? ” It is 
harder to explain these words, harder to 
show that the action of our Saviour in leav¬ 
ing His parents without telling them of His 
intention, and in permitting them to suffer 
so deeply because of His departure, is per¬ 
fectly consistent with the true respect and 
obedience a son should have for his parents. 

Not that there is, or could be, any doubt 

53 


THE OBEDIENGE OF CHRIST 


that He acted as a dutiful son might act; 
but we have here to deal with a higher law 
that takes the place of the lower one. The 
Superior who appoints the subordinate now 
steps in, and for the moment assumes per¬ 
sonally the direction He has delegated 
others to exercise. It is His right to do so, 
in view of the fact that in this case the 
Superior is God Himself, and that He has 
given to Joseph and Mary the guardian¬ 
ship of His Son with the understanding 
that it is to be a preparation for one great 
work, and that alone—the performance of 
the Father’s business. It is not a case, 
therefore, of a conflict of rights, nor of the 
arbitrary withdrawal or suspension of an 
inferior’s rights by a superior. Jesus 
ceases to obey His mother and foster-father 
solely because His eternal Father takes 
their place. 

But why, we ask ourselves, did He not 
tell His parents that He was going to leave 
them for three days? Could not His obe- 
54 


OBEDIENCE TO PARENTS 


dience to His heavenly Father permit Him 
to do this much, and thus relieve Mary and 
Joseph of the sufferings He foresaw they 
would undergo on account of His abrupt 
withdrawal from them? 

We could just as well ask, why did He 
not permit Mary to die, as Joseph died, be¬ 
fore His cruel death on Calvary? Would 
He not by so doing have lessened her sor¬ 
rows in a far greater degree? We have 
here, in our Lord’s apparent lack of loving 
forethought, an illustration of the mysteri¬ 
ous manner of God’s treatment of those 
whom He loves. The motives back of this 
conduct are fully known to Him alone. 
And who can search the mind of God, or 
discover His hidden reasons? He whom 
the Father loveth He chasteneth. Yes, and 
the measure of His love for His mother is 
the intensity of the sorrow she underwent 
with His knowledge and consent. He 
wished her to be the mother of martyrs in 
the true and full sense of the word; to give 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


to future ages an example of patient suffer¬ 
ing in as high a degree as possible. 

Did not the Child in the temple, as He 
thought of the agony His sudden separation 
was causing His mother, look into the 
hearts of all the mothers who were to 
grieve in the years to come by reason of 
the sorrow inflicted upon them, deliberately 
or otherwise, by their children? And did 
He not see how the example of Mary’s per¬ 
fect submission to His Father (an example 
which His action gave her the opportunity 
of offering) would lead millions of these 
sorrowing mothers to imitate her, and thus 
bear their anguish more bravely and with 
greater resignation to the will of God? 
This is one of the deep designs of God’s 
providence that the Child’s conduct at the 
paschal celebration partially reveals to us. 

Turning to the words used by our Lord 
in explanation of His conduct, it is very 
easy for us to detect in them the note of 
perfect respect, even though the relative 

56 


OBEDIENCE TO PARENTS 


positions of parents and Son are for the 
moment reversed, and the Child becomes 
the teacher. He reminds His earthly guar¬ 
dians that His principal business in this 
world is His Father’s business, and that, 
although He has been, and will be for many 
years to come, subject to them, still for the 
past three days a higher duty called Him 
from them; and for the performance of this 
duty He was responsible to God alone. 

Even when He gives His parents these 
words of instruction, implicitly announcing 
His independence of them, He does not 
forget their affection for Him and their 
deep sorrow at His disappearance, for the 
answer combines consolation with instruc¬ 
tion. It is perfectly evident to our Lord 
that the reference to His higher duty will 
at once drive away from Mary and Joseph, 
perfectly submissive as they are to God’s 
will, the sorrow that filled their hearts dur¬ 
ing His absence from them. He knows, 
too, that it will cause them to realize more 

57 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


deeply their inestimable privilege of being 
the guardians of the Son of God, even 
though they now know that this guardian¬ 
ship might cease at any time when the 
Father’s business called their Son away 
from them. 

There is in these words of our Lord a 
lesson for other parents too. There are 
boys and girls whom God has especially 
called to assist in the work of saving souls. 
Ov^r such as these, if the signs of vocation 
are true, if there is a moral certainty that 
God has called them, the rights of parents 
are no longer indisputable. A higher right, 
that of God Himself, takes the place of the 
lesser. And if the father and mother are 
wise and truly Christian, they will accept 
God’s will with a resignation which must, 
sooner or later, change into a happiness in 
some degree similar to the happiness Mary 
and Joseph felt at being called to so high 
an honor. 

But if the parents are unwilling to per- 

58 


OBEDIENCE TO PARENTS 


mit the Lawgiver and their divine Supe¬ 
rior to take to His own service those whom 
He has placed under their temporary guar¬ 
dianship, then, in a prudent and respectful 
manner, the Child must obey the command 
of God and disregard that of His parents. 

St. Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph 
“ understood not the word that he spoke 
unto them.” They realized, however, that 
their Son was the divinely-appointed Mes¬ 
siah, even though they may not have known 
the exact manner in which He would work 
out our Redemption, nor the connection 
that the episode in the temple had with this 
future work. Still, they were happy at re¬ 
gaining their Son and were content to en¬ 
joy His presence as long as it was God’s 
will that He should remain with them: 
“ And He went down with them, and came 
to Nazareth: and was subject to them.” 

******** 

Twenty years and more pass by. The 

59 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


time of subjection at Nazareth has come 
to a close. The period of the public min¬ 
istry, though long and weary with its pain 
and sorrow, is also over. Once more Jeru¬ 
salem looks upon a mother hurrying heart¬ 
broken through the streets in search of her 
Son. Long ago she had sought for this 
same Son three days and nights in vain, not 
knowing where He was. Now, alas, there 
is no uncertainty as to where she can find 
Him. Crowds of curious Jews are rushing 
to join the procession, passing slowly across 
the city on its way to Calvary. Mary fol¬ 
lows in the same direction, and soon her 
eyes fall upon the figure of her beloved 
Son, covered with blood and dust and per¬ 
spiration, staggering beneath the weight of 
the cruel cross. He has just risen from the 
first fall. His head is bent; His eyes, 
dimmed by dust and tears, gaze upon the 
ground in front of Him. His mother 
draws as close to Him as the guards permit. 
He feels her presence near Him, and turns 
60 


OBEDIENCE TO PARENTS 


His gaze full upon her loving countenance. 
No words are necessary. That one glance is 
enough. Each is strengthened by it. New 
life comes to the Son when His mother is 
near. And sad as the remainder of the 
journey is, there is now a ray of relieving 
happiness shining through the hitherto un¬ 
broken cloud of grief that had closed about 
Him, when He took up His cross and 
started on the way to Calvary. 

The summit of the mount is reached, 
and the Son is raised upon the cross. Still 
the mother is close to Him, as close as she 
can press to the foot of the cross. The end 
is near. Mary knows that her Child is 
dying. She knows why this must be so; 
and the sword of sorrow sinks slowly to 
the depths of her heart. 

The eyes of the Saviour are closed. For 
some time He has neither looked at those 
around Him, nor spoken a word. But His 
lips are continually moving in prayer. 
This, and the labored breathing, are the only 
61 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


signs that the feeble spark of life has not 
been totally extinguished. Will it go out 
without another evidence of love from Son 
to Mother? 

Mary’s face is transformed with agony. 
Her eyes, wide open, see nothing but the 
countenance of her divine Son. Thus she 
has stood since the cross was raised. Not 
a movement of the nail-pierced figure, not 
a tear trickling down the pallid cheek, not 
even the involuntary closing of an eyelid 
has escaped her notice. How eagerly she 
waits! How anxiously she longs for some 
word to come from His lips, some last mes¬ 
sage for her, His mother! 

He has spoken to His Father, asking 
forgiveness for His persecutors; He has 
spoken to the penitent thief, and promised 
him the happiness of paradise: but as yet 
no word has He addressed to His mother. 
Does she think, as she stands there at His 
feet, that perhaps it is part of God’s plan 
that this farewell message be denied her? 
62 


OBEDIENCE TO PARENTS 

Does the memory of the Boy’s answer in 
the temple so many years ago flash across 
her mind? And does she think that God’s 
business is filling His heart now also, to the 
exclusion of everything else? Will the 
business of the Father permit Him to give 
His mother a last word of parting? 

Yes. For now at last her time has come. 
Slowly the eyes open. The head is turned 
towards the weeping mother. Her heart is 
thrilled by a new transport of love. The 
lines of anguish are softened by eager ex¬ 
pectation. Mother and Son look into each 
other’s eyes. Let us try to fathom the 
depths of love revealed by that momentary 
glance of mutual affection, and by the words 
that fall sweetly from the lips of the dying 
Saviour, as with His last breath almost He 
consigns to the Apostle of Love that mother 
with whom His earthly relationship is now 
over. 

Loving and obeying her as a true Son in 
the days of Nazareth, His later life, so full 

63 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


of active work for mankind, is still a model 
of filial devotion, so true a model that no 
physical pain, nor mental anguish; no, not 
even the all-important work of Redemption 
could crowd out from His mind the thought 
of His mother, or from His heart that love 
for her which He wishes every child to have 
for his parents, at all times and in every 
state of life. 


64 


CHAPTER II 


OBEDIENCE TO THE STATE. 

“ Then he saith to them : Render therefore 

to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.”— 

Matt, xxii, 21. 

O BEDIENCE to the State is absolutely 
necessary in every form of govern¬ 
ment, but especially is this true in a 
government of the people and by the people. 
When each citizen has a voice in the election 
of those who make and execute the laws, 
there is danger of this close relationship be¬ 
tween citizen and civil authority engender¬ 
ing that familiarity which breeds contempt, 
especially if those who hold the power from 
the people prove themselves unworthy of 
their position. In practice men, as a rule, 
have difficulty in distinguishing between 
the authority they give to a man and the 
man himself. If he betray even an ordinary 

65 



THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


weakness in administering his power, the 
criticism he justly incurs is apt to strike 
deeper than the individual. It is apt to 
wound the authority itself. 

With the many examples we have at the 
present day of those who deliberately mis¬ 
use their power, turn it to personal ends, 
and deprive the people of their just dues, 
it is very hard to maintain the proper re¬ 
spect for the power itself. And this diffi¬ 
culty is made more pronounced by reason 
of the great freedom of pen and tongue 
shown by those who examine and openly 
discuss, not only the public acts, but even 
the private life, of one who holds power 
from the people. Individual liberty, the 
safeguard of a Republic, may also act, un¬ 
less it be kept pure by the action of patri¬ 
otic principles, as a weapon of self-destruc¬ 
tion. 

It needs no very keen observer to detect 
in our country to-day, especially in the 
younger generation, frequent signs of a 
66 


OBEDIENCE TO THE STATE 


growing disrespect for authority, a disre¬ 
spect that will eventually, unless a riper ex¬ 
perience and a wiser counsel neutralize it, 
weaken and even destroy that true liberty 
which forms the basis of our government. 

The evil often begins with a lack of re¬ 
spect, and at times even a positive contempt, 
for those who are appointed to safeguard 
the rights of the individual citizens from 
amongst whom they have been chosen. And 
indeed in many cases there is provocation 
for this attitude of disrespect or contempt. 
Take, for example, the all too frequent case 
of a man guilty of some misdemeanor and 
through influence political or otherwise, es¬ 
caping just punishment. These matters can¬ 
not always be kept secret; and it is very 
hard, especially for the young, to manifest 
a proper respect for the civil authority that 
permits this failure of justice. 

An appeal to a man's patriotism; a per¬ 
severing effort to make him see the neces¬ 
sity of respect and obedience from a merely 

67 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


natural and utilitarian point of view, and 
to teach him the necessity of constantly dis¬ 
tinguishing between the man and the office, 
between the official who merits criticism 
and the authority that must not be despised 
—all this will go a great way towards se¬ 
curing proper obedience to the State. But 
it does not go to the root of the matter. 
Men must realize that authority is ulti¬ 
mately from God, and they must learn to 
respect it as coming from God, otherwise 
their obedience will not in extreme cases, 
stand the strain imposed upon it by fre¬ 
quent examples of the abuse of authority. 

It is not necessary to treat those who rule 
us as God’s immediate representatives. 
We are not called upon to acknowledge the 
divine right of kings, or of our own civil 
rulers. But, nevertheless, St. Paul’s words 
are just as true in our case, and just as 
applicable to our republican institutions: 
“ All power is from God.” The power, in¬ 
deed, always comes from Him, even though 
68 


OBEDIENCE TO THE STATE 


the possession of it (except in the few in¬ 
stances recorded in the Bible, e. g., David 
and Solomon) does not come immediately 
from the same divine source. 

In our efforts to realize the divine element 
in civil power, to learn how to respect this 
power as coming from God, and to “ ren¬ 
der to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s ” 
we turn for guidance to One who was 
submissive to earthly rulers, even though 
He was the King of kings, and thus sub¬ 
ject to no one—our Divine Master. His 
obedience to the State, because entirely vol¬ 
untary, can be attributed primarily to no 
other motive than to His desire to give us 
a perfect Model of respect for civil au¬ 
thority. 

His example is all the more striking be¬ 
cause He lived at a time when Palestine was 
under the yoke of Rome, and when the 
Jews, especially the Galileans, were fre¬ 
quently rising in revolt against this foreign 
dominion. The most threatening of these 
69 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


uprisings had just been quelled by the 
Roman troops. The people, whose patriot¬ 
ism had been fanned to a white heat by cen¬ 
turies of glorious national life, whose pride 
of race had been made all the stronger by 
their pride of religion, conscious as they 
were of being God’s chosen people, would 
naturally expect to find a deep-seated, bitter 
antagonism to Rome in Him who claimed 
to be their Anointed One, their Messiah. 
In contrast to this popular ideal, this deeply- 
rooted hope of the Jews, the exact obedi¬ 
ence of our Lord to the constituted author¬ 
ity of Caesar, and His perfect respect, both 
in practice and teaching, for the represent¬ 
atives of this authority, stand out all the 
more prominently. 

It was very hard for a true Hebrew to 
respect and obey as civil rulers those who 
were regarded as so far inferior to God’s 
chosen people. It is this special difficulty 
which brings out all the more vividly the 
lesson taught us by the Master. For in giv- 
70 


OBEDIENCE TO THE STATE 


ing us the example of obedience, as well as 
of the other virtues, He wished the circum¬ 
stances surrounding His example to be as 
difficult as possible, so that we who strive 
to imitate Him might find ourselves in no 
condition that could possibly be more op¬ 
posed to the practice of the virtue than that 
in which He was placed. 

The example of obedience to civil au¬ 
thority given us by our Lord is all the more 
intelligible and more applicable to ourselves 
in our present political and social conditions, 
because of the distinction then drawn be¬ 
tween the civil rule of the Romans, and the 
national religious life of the Jews with the 
various powers Caesar permitted the con¬ 
quered race still to exercise. 

It is not, therefore, very difficult for us 
to distinguish between our Lord's civil and 
His religious obedience, and to treat of each 
form separately. He submits Himself to 
two distinct superiors: the Roman ruler 
and the Jewish high priest. Two codes of 

71 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


laws He obeys: the pagan in civil affairs, 
and the divinely-revealed code of the Old 
Testament in religious matters. Perfect 
obedience He gave to both, to the former no 
less than to the latter. 

There were indeed many occasions on 
which He rightly refused obedience to vari¬ 
ous additions to the Mosaic code that had 
crept in during the centuries just past. But 
it is His duty as a religious leader to purify 
the then existing religious practices, so that 
they might form a fitting foundation for 
the perfecting process that was to result in 
the New, the complete and final, Dispen¬ 
sation. 

This duty led to the many rebukes He 
gave to the Pharisees, and eventually 
brought about His death on the cross. It 
explains the apparent lack of respect for 
authority in His cleansing of the temple, 
and also in His answer to the Pharisees 
when they tell Him that Herod has a mind 
to kill Him. In the former case the abuse 
72 


OBEDIENCE TO THE STATE 

was one that called for the exercise of re¬ 
ligious authority, and as such was outside 
the sphere of the Roman ruler, as the Jews 
managed their religious matters, in the 
main, independently of Rome. In the latter 
case, the threat of Herod was an entirely 
unjustifiable interference with our Lord’s 
actions which were in no wise opposed to 
any law of the Romans. 

In considering Christ’s obedience to civil 
rulers, it is necessary to bear in mind the 
above distinction, to look upon Him as a 
subject of Rome, and, in so far as we are 
able, to examine the words and acts of the 
Religious Leader from this view-point. 

Our Lord’s life of subjection to earthly 
rulers was foreshadowed by the circum¬ 
stances of His birth. It was at the behest of 
the Roman ruler that Mary and Joseph re¬ 
moved to Bethlehem, where the Child was 
born in circumstances of poverty and misery 
that could have been avoided had the civil 

73 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


law been disregarded and Nazareth been the 
scene of the Nativity. 

Even before He begins His public min¬ 
istry, our Lord gave a clear indication of 
His purpose to act in entire conformity 
with the then existing form of government. 
In the wilderness the devil tempts Him, 
promising to give Him “ all the kingdoms 
of the world and the glory of them.” 
But our Saviour has no intention of play¬ 
ing the part of an earthly king, much 
less at the price of paying adoration to 
Satan. 

From the very beginning of His public 
ministry He carefully avoided every word 
or act that might be construed as hostile to 
the Roman rule. He could not however 
help being brought prominently before the 
people. His Mission as Messiah made this 
publicity unavoidable. The miracles that 
He worked, the many words of comfort 
and advice that He gave to those who fol¬ 
lowed Him, His most lovable personality 
74 


OBEDIENCE TO THE STATE 


and His powerful discourses at once won 
Him the hearts of all. 

Viewing Him only from a natural point 
of view, putting aside for the moment the 
supernatural element, it is not too much 
to say that, had His purpose been a merely 
earthly one, no other power could have 
moulded the men of His time and country 
into so formidable a force against Rome. 
Of course He realized this and knew the 
danger of it. Often He strove to neutralize 
the effect of His loving-kindness upon the 
people whom He helped, by warning them 
not to mention to any man the good He had 
done them. To avoid their effusive expres¬ 
sions of gratitude, He fled from them and 
hid Himself in solitary places where he 
might be alone to commune with His Father. 
One time the people strove to make Him 
king, but He, “ when he knew that they 
would come to take him by force to make 
him king, fled again into the mountain him¬ 
self alone. ,, 


75 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


He led, it is true, a triumphal procession 
through Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, and 
was then hailed as king. But no semblance 
of revolt against Rome could be detected in 
the Meek Monarch riding through the 
streets seated upon an ass, followed by the 
cheering crowd of Jews. Had there been 
any reason for suspecting our Lord of re¬ 
volt or lack of respect for the civil author¬ 
ity, the emissaries of Rome who were 
watching the procession would quickly have 
seized its Leader. 

From the moment in which the jealousy 
and suspicion of the high priests and of the 
Scribes and Pharisees were first aroused, 
they diligently sought some way of weaken¬ 
ing the influence of our Saviour. The more 
enemies a man has and the more bitter, the 
speedier and more complete will be the dis¬ 
covery of his weaknesses and their revela¬ 
tion to a world that is all too wide-awake 
when it hears of his faults. Especially is 
this true of one who is prominent before 

76 



OBEDIENCE TO THE STATE 


the people. Few can bear the light of pub¬ 
lic scrutiny, especially if it be a hostile 
public. Our Lord was before His enemies 
for three years. He was a Galilean; by 
reason of this fact alone He was open to 
the suspicion of Rome, for the insurrections 
of the Jews against foreign rule had origin¬ 
ated for the most part in Galilee and had 
been led by Galileans. Moreover, our 
Saviour was a leader of thousands. He 
spoke to His followers many times, always 
in places where spies could and did hear 
His every word. 

The Jewish leaders knew that the quick¬ 
est and surest way of getting rid of our 
Lord was to denounce and convict Him as 
a rebel to the rule of Rome. The latter’s 
representatives in Palestine were keenly 
watchful for the first sign of an insurrec¬ 
tion, and just as quick to stamp it out. 
Little mercy was shown. Two thousand 
insurgents had been crucified by them out¬ 
side the city after one of the many revolts. 

77 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


And yet, in spite of these conditions, in 
themselves so favorable to the plans of our 
Lord’s enemies, the latter can sustain 
against Him no charge of disobedience to 
the laws of Rome, no imputation of dis¬ 
loyalty to her, nor of the slightest disrespect 
for her authority. 

When He is brought before the civil 
court for trial, after the arrest in Gethsem- 
ane, three charges are preferred against 
Him: “ We have found this man perverting 
our nation, and forbidding to give tribute 
to Caesar, and saying that he is Christ the 
King.” But Pilate cannot find Him guilty, 
“ I find no cause in this man.” After 
Herod mocks Him and sends Him back 
to Pilate, the latter again, in spite of the 
charges heaped upon our Lord, declares 
that both he and Herod have failed to find 
the Prisoner guilty. 

The second of the three charges brought 
in the first instance against our Saviour in 
the court of Pilate states that He had for- 



CHRIST BEFORE PILATE 


























OBEDIENCE TO THE STATE 

bidden the people to pay tribute to Caesar. 
The fact that the Jews had the hardihood 
to make this accusation is itself evidence 
of the weakness of their case. Its falsity 
was evident to all who had followed the 
public life of our Lord, especially during 
the preceding week. For it had been only 
three days before this that, openly in the 
temple, the Jews had made their last cunning 
attempt to entrap the Master in some 
declaration that would lend itself to the 
accomplishment of their long cherished 
plan of convicting Him of treason to 
Rome. 

The question then proposed for His 
solution was the much discussed one of the 
lawfulness of paying tribute to Caesar. 
Palestine had witnessed many revolts be¬ 
cause of this tribute which the Jews were 
forced to pay to their conquerors. Judas 
of Galilee was one of the most noteworthy 
of those who had denied the right of Rome 
to exact the tribute. Very many shared 

79 


THE OBEDIENGE OF CHRIST 


his views, but fear of Caesar kept them from 
appealing to arms in defence of their 
opinion. Privately, the lawfulness of pay¬ 
ing it was much discussed, and the Roman 
authorities seemed to tolerate this discus¬ 
sion as long as it did not interfere with the 
actual payment of the tax. 

The Herodians, the Tories of Palestine, 
who favored the rule of Herod, Rome’s 
representative, were requested by the Phari¬ 
sees to help them in the attempt to ensnare 
our Lord. A deputation composed of repre¬ 
sentatives from both parties was selected 
to question Him. After a rather crude at¬ 
tempt to hide their true feelings under the 
mask of flattery, they asked the Master 
whether it was lawful for them to pay tri¬ 
bute to Caesar or not. If He were to answer 
yes, He would lose the friendship of the 
great number of the Jews who held that it 
was wrong for the followers of the one 
true God to pay tribute to a pagan ruler. 
If His answer were in the negative, then 
80 


OBEDIENCE TO THE STATE 


His enemies would have sure grounds for 
an accusation of disloyalty to Caesar. 

They rather expected the latter answer, 
for, notwithstanding their hatred of our 
Saviour, they felt in their hearts that He 
was a true Hebrew, and they could not con¬ 
ceive of Him, as a loyal Son of the Law, 
admitting the legality of paying tribute 
money to Rome. 

What made the question so delicate a 
one was the complication caused by the 
presence of both religious and civil elements. 
There appeared to be a conflict of two 
rights. It seemed impossible to admit one 
without denying the other. Granted that 
Rome, for a century the de facto ruler of 
Palestine, had a right to demand tribute 
as a return for the protection she gave the 
Jews, could the latter, in view of their 
duties to God, pay a tax to those who wor¬ 
shipped false deities, whose ruler himself 
was regarded as divine? 

To the Pharisees present when the ques- 
81 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


tion was asked our Lord, there appeared to 
be but one answer for a true believer in 
Jehovah. They had no idea of the distinc¬ 
tion between Church and State. They were 
unable to conceive of a civil power that 
was not identified, or intimately associated, 
with a religious power. They could not un¬ 
derstand how they might pay tax to the 
Roman Emperor, without at the same time 
implicitly acknowledging him as Pontifex 
Maximus also. 

Our Saviour went at once to the root of 
the matter. He asked for the coin with 
which they were accustomed to pay the tax. 
Out of deference to the Jews, Rome had 
permitted them to use a special coin for this 
purpose, one that had no image of the em¬ 
peror stamped upon it. This, however, was 
not the coin given in response to our Lord’s 
request, but there was handed to Him an 
ordinary Roman denarius, showing on one 
side the head of Tiberius with the inscri]> 
tion, “ Tiberius Caesar, Son of the Divine 
82 


OBEDIENCE TO THE STATE 


Augustus.” Our Lord asks, “ Whose image 
and inscription is this? They say to him 
Caesar’s. Then he saith to them: Render 
therefore to Caesar the things that are 
Caesar’s: and to God the things that are 
God’s.” 

Outwitted, they withdraw in confusion. 
The full purport of our Saviour’s answer 
they do not grasp. Preconceived opinions 
cloud their minds and keep them from un¬ 
derstanding the distinction that formed the 
foundation of the Master’s answer. But of 
one thing they feel sure: this unexpected 
reply leaves them no opportunity to accuse 
Christ, either of heresy or treason. They 
have been outwitted without even the slight¬ 
est chance even to pretend to be scandalized 
at the Master’s attitude towards their 
religion and towards their earthly rulers. 

According to the teaching of their own 
Rabbis, to accept and use the coinage of a 
ruler was equivalent to recognizing his 
power over them. Now for years, in busi- 

83 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


ness transactions as well as in the payment 
of taxes, they had used money coined by 
Rome. Hence they had been acknowledg¬ 
ing the civil dominion of Caesar. 

Our Saviour shows them that they can¬ 
not refuse obedience to the laws of the 
existing form of government. The religious 
question did not, in this case, affect the 
legality of paying the tribute. Rome had 
granted them liberty in the exercise of their 
religion. Her sphere was distinct from the 
worship of Jehovah. So long as she did 
not trespass on their rights as the chosen 
nation, there could be no question of their 
obligation to render exact and complete 
obedience to her laws. 

This encounter with the scheming Phar¬ 
isees and Herodians has given us our Lord’s 
plainest and most important public pro¬ 
nouncement on the relative relations of the 
citizen to his country and to his God. 
Perhaps it is the only concrete, direct ex¬ 
ample He gives us, because the payment of 

84 


OBEDIENCE TO THE STATE 


the stater by Peter at the command of His 
Master was very probably in compliance 
with the religious law prescribing a tax for 
the support of the temple at Jerusalem. 

Be that as it may, there is one thing to be 
especially noted about our Lord’s direct 
teaching in regard to obedience to civil au¬ 
thority. And that is the relatively insig¬ 
nificant portion of the Gospel given up to 
it. We say relatively insignificant, because 
not even a single word spoken by our 
Saviour, not even His slightest action is 
without a tremendous importance in itself. 
It is plain that He had in mind one thing 
above all else, and that is the spiritual re¬ 
generation and eternal happiness of man. 
Even this one command of giving to Caesar 
what belongs to Caesar is immediately fol¬ 
lowed by the more important command of 
rendering to our Infinite Ruler in Heaven 
what of right belongs to Him. 

But the very fact that our Saviour couples 
the obedience we owe to the State with the 

85 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


obedience we owe to God shows how high a 
value He attaches to the former. In our 
life here on earth each one is necessary. 
The latter, obedience to God, cannot be 
given without the former. No more than 
the former can be given consistently and 
perseveringly without the latter. The two 
species of obedience may be distinct, but 
they cannot be so separated as to be abso¬ 
lutely independent of each other. The two 
powers that command the obedience may be 
lodged in two different sets of represent¬ 
atives, as they were when our Lord lived 
on earth, but ultimately each one is from 
the same source. Contempt for civil au¬ 
thorities is indirectly, but no less surely, 
contempt for the power of God. 

It would be vain to seek in the Gospel 
any argument favoring one particular form 
of civil government as better than another. 
Christ said, “ render to Caesar the things 
that are Caesar's,” but He would have com¬ 
manded the same obedience had the form of 
86 


OBEDIENCE TO THE STATE 


government been different. Emperor, 
President, King, any legally constituted 
ruler, may be the Caesar to whom we are to 
render obedience. The great point is this: 
obedience and respect must be given, other¬ 
wise society cannot exist. 

Our Saviour’s principal work, so far as 
the relation of man to the civil government 
is concerned, lay with the individual soul. 
His most important task was to save that 
soul by leading it to know, love and serve 
God. And we might say that this was, in 
a certain sense, His only task. Not that He 
disregarded the earthly interests of man 
and paid no heed to his temporal happiness. 
Far from it. His life proves the contrary. 
No philanthropist ever lived who worked 
so hard to make man naturally happier. 

But His work of leading man to eternal 
happiness included as a lesser, but still an 
ever-present, part, the work of making him 
a more dutiful son, a more loving parent, 
a more charitable neighbor, a more loyal 

87 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


and obedient citizen. The principles He 
taught men to act upon in their efforts to 
save their souls, were the principles best 
calculated to make them better citizens also. 
The commands He gave as necessary for 
them to obey if they wished to remain in a 
state of friendship with God included, at 
least in the germ, every possible law that a 
State could formulate for its own existence 
and the well-being of those who constituted 
it. 

Take as an example of this His Sermon 
on the Mount. It is not a discourse on the 
duties of citizens to their country. It was 
not delivered primarily to advance the well¬ 
being of the State. And yet if all men fol¬ 
lowed the precepts contained in it, there 
would be a perfect obedience to civil au¬ 
thority, a total absence of injustice in the 
relations of citizens to each other and to 
the State ; and the purpose of all civil gov¬ 
ernment, the peace and temporal prosperity 
of mankind, would be perfectly secured. 

88 


OBEDIENCE TO THE STATE 


Take away from this life the hatred, the 
revenge that are forbidden by our Lord in 
this sermon, and substitute the charity, mu¬ 
tual forbearance, forgiveness of injuries 
here inculcated; remove the sins of im¬ 
purity in act and desire, divorce, perjury 
and the other crimes condemned so plainly, 
and put in their place clean minds and 
hearts, sanctity of marriage relations, fidel¬ 
ity and honor; let men who are able give 
with a good heart to those in need; let all 
learn to love each other even as Christ 
loved us—and you have the ideal common¬ 
wealth, without directly and ex professo 
dealing with the State. 

It is the man that makes the nation. The 
latter safeguards him and gives him the 
opportunities, the freedom necessary for 
perfecting self and aiding others. It is in 
reality the servant of the people. It has 
obligations towards them which it must ful¬ 
fill. But together with this high responsi¬ 
bility for the welfare of its members there 

89 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


goes hand in hand the right to demand and 
receive the obedience of each citizen, in so 
far as this is necessary for the performance 
of its duties. And this right, so long as 
the government retains its responsibility, is 
inalienable. 

Although we are subject to the governing 
power, the latter is, in the highest and truest 
sense of the word, the servant of the public. 
In the light of this fact, how true and prac¬ 
tical are the words of Christ to His apos¬ 
tles, words formulating the fundamental 
principle that should guide the actions of 
those in authority: “You know that they 
who seem to rule over the gentiles, lord it 
over them: and their princes have power 
over them. But it is not so among you: 
but whosoever will be greater, shall be your 
minister. And whosoever will be first 
among you, shall be the servant of all.” 

Those who hold power do not hold it for 
their own benefit, to use it for self-aggran¬ 
dizement, but are bound in conscience to 
90 


OBEDIENCE TO THE STATE 


wield it as the servants of the people. Far 
from being a degradation, this service is 
most noble, since it is in direct imitation of 
Christ Himself, “ For the Son of man also 
is not come to be ministered unto, but to 
minister.” 

It is not, therefore, an unequal exchange 
that our Lord requires. It is hard at times 
to obey and respect those in power, who 
may be in themselves no better fitted for 
their position than we are, but it is equally 
hard for them to use their power in the ca¬ 
pacity of servants, for us alone, and not for 
the advancement of their own interests. 

It may be objected that these principles 
are all right in theory, but that they do not 
work out well in practice; that our civil 
rulers are too prone to “ lord it ” over 
those whom they govern, not by a show of 
force as in the olden days, but by a less 
crude method, by means of cleverly con¬ 
ceived political schemes for controlling the 
resources of the country and permitting the 

91 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


vast majority of the people to gain but an 
insignificant share of this world’s goods. 

In answer to this, it is impossible to deny 
that such a condition, in a degree varying in 
different places, does exist at the present 
time, and is a serious menace to the peace 
and permanent prosperity of society. But 
the condition that now obtains is not the 
result of the working out of our Lord’s 
principles. And what else could we ex¬ 
pect in a nation like our own, for example, 
where not one third of those who elect the 
officers of the State is affiliated with a 
Christian Church? 

That the condition is not worse than it is 
is due to the influence of the small number 
of professed and practical Christians, and 
also to the constantly decreasing remnants 
of Christian practice that oftentimes remain 
in the lives of those who have long since 
given up their interest in the religion of 
Christ. 

The moment that this leaven ceases to 
92 


OBEDIENCE TO THE STATE 


act upon the mass of voters—and its action 
already seems to be growing less effective 
—that moment will principles other than 
Christ’s have a predominating, instead of a 
merely impeding, influence upon our form 
of government. And then—may God avert 
the calamity—those whose enmity towards 
the doctrines of the Master grows daily 
more outspoken, will have a chance to see 
how their principles work out in practice. 

Our Saviour did not draw up a detailed 
scheme of the duties incumbent upon those 
who govern and those who are governed. 
Even if He had done so, it would be of 
little practical help at the present time, be¬ 
cause the conditions existing in His day 
were entirely different from those of the 
modern world. He laid down, as we have 
tried to show, only the fundamental princi¬ 
ples. And these, be it remembered, were 
perfect principles suited for all times and 
conditions. 

Those who study them thoroughly and 

93 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


without bias, will find a solution for every 
political problem, even the most perplexing 
ones of our time and country. What we 
need, therefore, is not a new set of princi¬ 
ples, not a new system of laws, at least not 
a new system of fundamental laws; but men 
with minds enlightened by faith and hearts 
filled with love and wills strengthened by 
grace. For it is men like these who alone 
will be able to interpret the doctrines of the 
Master, apply them to existing conditions 
and enact whatever legislation is necessary 
to alleviate the conditions that oppress man¬ 
kind at the present day. 

We need also Christian citizens who are 
ready to obey and respect the authority 
which directs them; citizens who are wise 
enough to elect as their civil superiors men 
who themselves have learned to obey the 
laws and respect authority. For no man 
is fit to govern who has proved himself 
lacking in these qualifications so essential 
for every citizen. 


94 


OBEDIENCE TO THE STATE 


There are times, of course, when even the 
constituted civil authority may overstep its 
limits and pass laws interfering, for ex¬ 
ample, with a man's freedom of worship, 
or commanding some act that would be 
sinful. As an illustration of this latter, we 
have the attempts of various Roman Em¬ 
perors to force the Christians to worship 
idols. In cases like these, if obedience to 
civil authority necessarily involves an in¬ 
infraction of God's law, the command must 
not be complied with. 

There are more complex problems, how¬ 
ever, in this question of rendering obedience 
to civil authorities, which cannot be solved 
so simply. There are times when economic 
conditions become so distressing and so hard 
to bear that men, almost in desperation, are 
strongly tempted to refuse obedience and 
respect to the system of government that 
permits this state of misery to exist, nay, 
even seems at times to open up opportunities 
for intensifying it. Take, for example, a 

95 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


condition like the following: a large portion 
of the working classes unable to earn a 
decent living because unscrupulous men of 
wealth and influence not only refuse to 
grant sufficient wages to their employees, 
but even succeed by illegitimate means in 
influencing members of legislative bodies, or 
other government officials, to favor the in¬ 
terests of capital at the expense of the peo¬ 
ple. How is a problem like this to be solved 
in the light of Christ’s principles? 

A condition of this kind would exist be¬ 
cause these principles had not been put into 
practice, or had been hampered in their ac¬ 
tion by the introduction of opposing prin¬ 
ciples; because, too, the individual soul had 
not been permeated by the Christ-like spirit 
of charity that would never permit condi¬ 
tions like these to come into existence. 

Give the principles of Christ a chance to 
influence those who are responsible for 
the condition of the laboring classes, so that 
they will take steps to ameliorate this con- 
96 


OBEDIENCE TO THE STATE 


dition. Let these principles operate also in 
those who suffer, urging them to bear their 
trials in a spirit of Christian patience, and 
teaching them where their power as citizens 
really lies,—in a prudent, independent use 
of their vote at the polls, not in an irrational 
effort to better themselves by resorting to 
physical violence. 

Mutual forbearance, mutual understand¬ 
ing, and above all, the spirit of respect for 
duly-constituted authority, a respect that 
must be felt by the official as well as by the 
citizen; these are the fundamental requisites 
afforded for the solution of the problem by 
the teachings of the Master. For the work¬ 
ing out of details we must look to men 
whose minds and hearts have been trained 
in the school of the same Master. The bet¬ 
ter they shall have studied this Model, the 
speedier and less difficult will be the final 
attainment of the temporal tranquillity and 
material prosperity of mankind. 

Our study of the Master’s practice and 

97 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


principles in regard to obedience to the State 
would not be complete without some refer¬ 
ence to the example and teachings of those 
who reflected in their lives the influence of 
our Lord, either as His immediate follow¬ 
ers who listened to the very words that fell 
from the lips of the Saviour, or as members 
of the Sub-Apostolic Church. Surely those 
who were so close to our Lord can give us 
some indications as to the nature of the 
lessons in obedience to civil authority taught 
by the Master. 

No one dare assert that these followers, 
with the fervor so characteristic of their 
lives in other matters, would have failed to 
pattern their obedience to civil authority as 
closely as possible after our Lord’s example 
and teaching. It is true, we read of the 
apostles being cast into prison and scourged 
at the order of the Roman authorities. 
But this was done at the instigation of the 
Jews whose opposition to Christianity was 
kept alive by the Pharisees and other He- 


OBEDIENCE TO THE STATE 


brew leaders, who saw with chagrin that 
the death of our Saviour had not put a stop 
to the rapid spread of His teachings. 

The account given us in Acts xvi, 19-21, 
is typical of the conduct of the Jews in re¬ 
gard to the apostles: “ But her masters 
seeing that the hope of their gain was gone, 
apprehending Paul and Silas, brought them 
into the market-place to the rulers. And 
presenting them to the magistrates, they 
said: These men disturb our city, being 
Jews: And preach a fashion which it is not 
lawful for us to receive, nor observe, being 
Romans. ,, It is needless to point out the 
self-interest, jealousy and hatred that 
formed the only foundation for these 
charges and others like them. 

What Peter and Paul and the other apos¬ 
tles actually did teach was in no way sub¬ 
versive of the constituted authority of 
Rome. And this is not a general statement 
deduced indirectly from their doctrines on 
other points, but it is founded upon their 
99 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


direct teaching in regard to this matter, a 
teaching that is plainly put forth in certain 
letters of theirs that form part of the New 
Testament. 

These letters contain clear statements of 
the necessity of obedience to authority, in 
their case to the authority of Rome. St. 
Paul speaks of this matter in two of his 
epistles: i. e., to the Christians at Rome and 
to his disciple, Titus. St. Peter refers to it 
in the second chapter of his first epistle ad¬ 
dressed, as he tells us, to the Christians 
“ dispersed through Pontus, Galatia, Cap¬ 
padocia, Asia and Bithynia.” 

In all these cases the words are clear and 
directly to the point. To Titus, St. Paul 
says, “ Admonish them to be subject to 
princes and powers, to obey at a word.” 
Not only is obedience to civil authority here 
commanded, but its character is also de¬ 
scribed. Christians must obey their civil 
rulers promptly, unquestioningly, “ at a 
word.” 


ioo 


OBEDIENCE TO THE STATE 


To the Romans a lengthier exhortation 
is given: “Let every soul be subject to 
higher powers: for there is no power but 
from God: and those that are, are ordained 
by God. Therefore he that resisteth the 
power, resisteth the ordinance of God. 
And they that resist, purchase to themselves 
damnation. For princes are not a terror to 
good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou 
then not be afraid of the power? Do that 
which is good, and thou shalt have praise 
for the same. For he is God’s minister to 
thee for good. But if thou do that which is 
evil, fear: for he beareth not the sword in 
vain. For he is God’s minister: an avenger 
to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. 
Wherefore be subject of necessity, not only 
for wrath, but also for conscience sake.” 

We have here an admirable exposition 
of the Christian attitude toward the State. 
At the very outset, the duty of the Chris¬ 
tian to be subject to civil authority is stated 
in unmistakable language. The highest 


IOI 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


motive for this respect and obedience is 
then given in the statement of the ultimate 
source of civil authority, namely, God Him¬ 
self. The act of resisting the power of the 
State draws its malice primarily from the 
fact that it is resistance of God’s authority. 
The punishment due this resistance is not 
merely an earthly, but a divine, punishment, 
because the injury affects God Himself. 
The primary function of civil authority is 
clearly stated, “ he is God’s minister to 
thee for good.” A secondary function, one 
naturally connoted by the first, is also set 
forth, “ He is God’s minister: an avenger 
to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.” 
Finally there is the exhortation to render 
our obedience not merely from fear, but for 
a higher reason, “ for conscience sake,” 
since it is God who asks this obedience 
from us. 

St. Peter’s admonition is substantially 
identical with St. Paul’s: “ Be ye subject 
therefore to every human creature for God’s 


102 


OBEDIENCE TO THE STATE 


sake: whether it be to the king as excelling: 
Or to governors as sent by him for the pun¬ 
ishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of 
the good: For so is the will of God.’’ But 
St. Peter adds a special, an additional rea¬ 
son why Christians must be particularly 
careful to give good example in this matter: 
i. e., “ that by doing well you may put to 
silence the ignorance of foolish men. ,, 

He sees the difficulty Christians will have 
of convincing their pagan neighbors and 
rulers of their loyalty to a State with which, 
in religion, they can have no sympathy. 
He realizes that the slightest disobedience 
to civil authority will react not only upon 
the Christian who disobeys but also upon 
Christianity itself. The followers of the 
Master must, if possible, be even more loyal 
than the Romans themselves. 

The Emperors of the second century did 
not consider it necessary to trouble them¬ 
selves about the loyalty of the Christians. 
Indeed some regulations imposed upon the 
103 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


governors of provinces were plainly calcu¬ 
lated to keep down any uprising against the 
Christians. The latter were frequently 
persecuted, but it was superstition and 
hatred that led to this exhibition of enmity 
on the part of the pagans. 

People thought that wars and pestilences 
were the result of the anger of the gods at 
the toleration shown the Christians. The 
two charges most frequently brought 
against the followers of Jesus, Atheism and 
Hatred of Mankind (Odium Generis Hu- 
mani), were far from implying any lack of 
respect for constituted civil authority. The 
former was simply a refusal to adore the 
Roman deities. The latter was a failure 
on the part of the Christians to live accord¬ 
ing to the Roman standard of civilization, 
a standard that tolerated divorce and the 
lowest forms of sensual pleasure. 

The principles of morality followed by 
the Christians would not permit them to 
share in the licentiousness of Rome, conse- 
104 


OBEDIENCE TO THE STATE 


quently their lives were, in many respects, 
a direct contrast to the lives of their pagan 
neighbors. The latter were irritated by this 
silent, but ever-present reproach. Natu¬ 
rally they resented it. 

A passage in the Apology of Tertullian, 
chapter 42, will show us that the Christians 
took pride in their loyalty to the State, and 
were eager to defend themselves from 
any accusation impeaching this loyalty: 
“.... So we sojourn with you (the 
Pagans) in the world, abjuring neither 
forum, nor shambles, nor bath, nor booth, 
nor worship, nor inn, nor weekly market, 
nor any other place of commerce. We sail 
with you and fight with you, and till the 
ground with you; and in like manner we 
unite with you in your traffickings—even 
in the various arts we make public property 
of our works for your benefit .... But 
if I do not frequent your religious cere¬ 
monies, I am still on the sacred day a man.” 

The Christians offered prayers for those 
105 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


who ruled them and for the welfare of the 
State. These prayers formed part of the 
regular liturgical services, and the various 
persecutions on the part of the Roman Em¬ 
perors did not put a stop to them. Cyprian 
writes to Demetrian, who is persecuting the 
Christians, “ Night and day we pour forth 
our prayers for your peace and salvation.” 
We find the martyrs praying for the wel¬ 
fare and safety of the very rulers who were 
putting them to death. 

Thus the early Christians, reflecting in 
their lives the spirit of the Master, not only 
gave their due allegiance to the Roman Em¬ 
peror, as holding his power ultimately from 
God, but also strove to advance the spiritual 
and temporal interests of this same ruler 
and his subordinates by offering up prayers 
to God, publicly and privately, in their be¬ 
half. Faithfully they put into practice the 
teachings of their Master, and gave to the 
world a practical example of what strict 
conformity to the Christian principles of 
106 


OBEDIENCE TO THE STATE 


obedience and other virtues is able to ac¬ 
complish. 

For out of the immorality and oppres¬ 
sion and paganism of Rome they caused 
to rise the great Christian Nations of 
Mediaeval Europe. Had not the applica¬ 
tion of the Master’s principles to the civil 
and social life of mankind been restricted, 
interrupted, and in many cases gradually 
deadened by doctrines fundamentally false, 
the world to-day would be far nearer that 
condition of peace and temporal prosperity 
so confidently promised by the many modern 
plans for the betterment of the existing 
social, political and economic conditions. 


CHAPTER III 


OBEDIENCE TO GOD 

44 Then said I: Behold I come : in the head 
of the book it is written of me: that I should 
do thy will, O God.”—Hebrews, x, 7. 

I N addition to the relationship between 
children and parents, between citizens 
and the State, and the obedience each 
one implies, there enters into our lives an¬ 
other relationship, that which exists be¬ 
tween man and his Maker. This is far 
nobler and more important than any other, 
because it is eternal, and brings us into in¬ 
timate connection with God Himself. And 
naturally the obedience it begets shares in 
this superiority. It is true that our rela¬ 
tions with human superiors, with parents 
and civil rulers, are in a certain sense di¬ 
rected to God, because men would have no 
authority over us were it not for God. 
108 


OBEDIENCE TO GOD 


Therefore, broadly speaking, the obedience 
of the child to his parents, of the citizen to 
his civil rulers, of the servant to his master, 
also have God as their object, though not 
directly. But in this chapter we intend to 
speak of that obedience which has God as 
its more immediate object, springing as it 
does from the relationship which binds us 
directly and intimately with Him and forms 
what is called Religion. 

In this relationship man stands at one 
term, God at the other. All our thoughts, 
words, actions and omissions, viewed in the 
light of the hereafter and measured by the 
eternal, unchanging standard of right and 
wrong, form the subject matter of this re¬ 
lationship. Hence we can see that it in¬ 
cludes our relations with human superiors; 
only now we are not looking at these rela¬ 
tions as influencing merely our mortal lives, 
our temporal prosperity; but also our un¬ 
ending existence, our eternal state in the 
world to come. 


109 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


In view of this fact it can readily be 
understood how very necessary it is for us 
to practice this fundamental form of obedi¬ 
ence. And yet, of all forms of obedience, 
that which we owe to God is least observed. 
This statement is equally true when we 
make allowance for the comparatively 
limited sphere of obedience to parents, or 
to the State, as compared with the sphere 
of religion. Many reasons may be given in 
explanation of this fact; but the fact still 
remains, and forms our strongest motive 
for seeking in the Master’s life an example 
to guide us in obeying God, and in His 
merits a means to help us yield this obedi¬ 
ence. 

In the obedience we are now considering, 
our Superior is God; His commands are the 
ones we must obey. How shall we know 
these commands? This question is import¬ 
ant. May we expect God to speak to us 
directly, as a parent to his child, or as the 
State to its citizens? In a loose sense, yes. 
no 


OBEDIENCE TO GOD 


For He has given us conscience and has 
placed in each soul the broad, general 
principles of right and wrong, the natural 
law. In the blameless absence of all other 
knowledge, this may suffice. Otherwise, 
surely not. Experience alone shows us 
that men, relying on natural reason alone, 
have interpreted this law in diverse ways, 
and that no certain, sufficient, uniform and 
unchanging system of right and wrong can 
result from such a method of interpretation. 

Nor has the revelation granted by God 
to mankind been in itself sufficient to give 
men, interpreting it privately, an adequate 
idea of what He wishes us to do in our rela¬ 
tions with Himself. The many conflicting 
interpretations of Holy Writ prove this. 
Since God is One, Unchanging, His laws 
must be the same. If He were to stand be¬ 
fore us in person and give us the detailed 
knowledge we need in order to render Him 
true obedience; If He were to leave us no 
room for doubt and hesitation, there would 


ill 


THE OBEDIENGE OF CHRIST 


not be any difficulty. But He does not act 
thus. And yet, the obedience He demands 
of us presupposes this detailed knowledge. 
He has, therefore, since He is all-just and 
all-loving, appointed representatives who 
are to act in His place as our superiors, and 
interpret His will to us. Giving obedience 
to these we obey God Himself. 

Has not our Lord shown us this by His 
life and by His teachings? If He, being 
God, gave obedience in religious matters to 
human beings because they represented His 
Father, unworthy though they were, may 
we refuse the same obedience to those who 
now act as the ambassadors of this same 
Saviour ? 

In the twenty-third chapter of St. Mat¬ 
thew, we find a clear statement of our 
Lord’s views on obedience to God’s human 
representatives. Speaking to His disciples 
and to a multitude of Jews at Jerusalem, 
He says: “ The Scribes and the Pharisees 
have sitten on the chair of Moses. All 
112 


OBEDIENCE TO GOD 


things therefore whatsoever they shall say 
to you, observe and do: but according to 
their works do ye not: for they say and do 
not.” Moses, the lawgiver of the Jews, has 
spoken authoritatively as inspired by God. 
Those who take his place, who sit on his 
chair, as it were, and interpret the law, must 
be obeyed when they act in this capacity. 
But in their private capacity, they have no 
power to compel obedience. Indeed, to fol¬ 
low them then would often lead to sin. 
For frequently they act not according to 
their teachings. 

Our Saviour carefully distinguishes be¬ 
tween the man and the priest, between the 
Scribes and the Pharisees in their private 
capacity and in their public office. His 
plain insistence on the obedience due them 
as interpreters of the Law is all the more 
striking and emphatic because of the evil 
and irreligious character of their private 
lives. Here again we have an extreme case 
given by our Lord. For it is hardly likely 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


that religious leaders would ever be person¬ 
ally more shallow and hypocritical than the 
Scribes and Pharisees to whom our Lord 
commands obedience to be given when they 
sit on the chair of Moses. 

And not only does He urge others to con¬ 
form to the laws of a religious system over 
which there are many unworthy men acting 
a judicial and executive capacity, but He 
Himself is under that religious system, and, 
therefore, subject to its leaders. He com¬ 
plies faithfully with all the legislation au¬ 
thoritatively prescribed. Even when He 
exercises His divine power and cleanses the 
ten lepers, He orders them to go and show 
themselves to the priest as was prescribed 
by the Law of Moses. 

From the very beginning of His earthly 
life, He is subject to the Jewish priests, 
and to the various prescriptions of the 
Mosaic code. When He is but eight days 
old, His blood is shed in compliance with 
the law of Circumcision. But a few weeks 


OBEDIENCE TO GOD 


afterward. He is taken to the temple, where 
His mother is purified according to the 
Jewish rite, and He Himself is presented to 
His Father and bought back by the pay¬ 
ment of a pair of turtle-doves. When John 
the Baptist preaches repentance, He pre¬ 
sents Himself for baptism on the bank of 
the Jordan. We read of Him frequenting 
Synagogues and expounding the Law ac¬ 
cording to the Jewish custom. He goes 
to Jerusalem to attend the various feasts, 
and on the very eve of His death, He 
celebrates the Paschal Supper with all due 
formality. 

Even in the observance of the merely 
temporal part of divine worship, we find 
Him acting as a model of obedience for our 
edification. He orders Peter to pay the 
didrachma (very likely the temple tax) 
although He was not bound to pay it since, 
as He tells us, “ the children are free.” 
Yet He complies, primarily to give us an 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


example, “ that we may not scandalize 
them.” 

There were, it is true, many regulations 
of the Scribes and Pharisees which our 
Lord refused to obey, and oftentimes 
strongly attacked. But these were the 
abuses that had crept in, the “ insupportable 
burdens ” laid on men’s shoulders by the 
Jewish leaders, burdens that were contrary 
to the spirit of the Mosaic Law. They 
were the prescriptions of the Scribes and 
Pharisees acting in their private capac¬ 
ity, and not as “ sitting on the chair of 
Moses.” 

Our Lord with His perfect knowledge 
could at once distinguish what was legit¬ 
imate and deserving of obedience, from 
the multitude of empty forms that had no 
part in the authentic code. And so He 
could make no mistake when He inveighed 
against various parts of the religious 
system as it existed in His day, and gave 
perfect obedience to the exactions of the 
116 


OBEDIENCE TO GOD 

Jewish priests in regard to the remaining 
parts. 

Long before the time of our Lord the; 
prophets of the chosen race had acted thus, 
sternly decrying abuses, while they them¬ 
selves obeyed the real Law. But these 
were human instruments of God’s provi¬ 
dence, working, it is true, under divine 
guidance and inspiration, but still human. 
And it is a significant fact that their work 
was one of reform only, reform within 
the Jewish Church. They called back to 
the Mosaic Code the Israelites wandering 
once more in the desert, the desert of 
fading faith and increasing idolatry. No 
new Church did they found; not a jot or 
tittle of the Law, in its original integrity 
and as authoritatively interpreted, did they 
alter or destroy. 

But now, when this Old Dispensation it¬ 
self is to give way to a New One; when 
the work is not only a task of tearing away 
the thick accumulation of empty forms and 

117 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


useless ceremonies, the burdens that make 
heavy and halting the intercourse between 
God and man, but a work of perfecting the 
Old Law by forming a New Church, with 
institutions essentially different from the 
Old; now we find no mere man chosen for 
the work; but there is sent from heaven to 
execute this mission a Being Who is both 
divine and human, the Very Son of God 
Himself. So high is the regard of the 
Father for the authority of those who, as 
religious leaders, represent Him on earth, 
so carefully does He safeguard this au¬ 
thority, that He will have it destroyed only 
by His Divine Son. And this Son made 
man renders perfect obedience in all essen¬ 
tials to His Father’s representatives, even 
while He is preparing for their removal, 
for the final foundation of His Church. 
Even up to His death does He obey them, 
even up to the consummation of Calvary, 
when the veil of the temple is rent in two, 


118 


OBEDIENCE TO GOD 


and the claim of the Synagogue to obedi¬ 
ence is gone forever. 

Thus far we have been following our 
Saviour at a distance. We have been 
mingling with the crowds in the temple, 
on the hillside, or by the shore of Tiberias. 
We have been witnessing only His public 
manifestations of perfect obedience to His 
Father’s will, in so far as that will has 
been interpreted by those who are at the 
head of the Jewish religion. But now let 
us come closer. Let us dare to penetrate 
even the secret recesses of the soul of the 
Master. This is thrice holy ground. 
Angels, archangels, the noblest of created 
beings, hesitate to enter here; and fall 
prostrate, with hushed voice and bated 
breath, when they see the splendor now 
revealed. 

For it is in the interior life of Christ, in 
His immediate intercourse with His Father, 
that we learn the highest and most beautiful 
lesson of obedience to the will of God. It 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


is not the busy streets of the city, nor the 
temple’s crowded courts, that tell us most 
about our Lord’s submission to Divine 
commands. No, for the stars that gazed 
upon Him night after night, as He prayed 
to His Father, and the wild desert that 
watched His victory over Satan, and the 
trees that shaded the grotto of Geth- 
semane—these can reveal in far fuller 
measure the obedience of the Master. 

“ I came down from heaven, not to do 
my own will, but the will of him that sent 
me.” Ever present to the mind of Christ 
was this motive for His life on earth, to do 
the will of His Father. No merely human 
being could have so adequate an idea of 
what God requires of him, as our Saviour 
had of the Divine will in His regard. For 
His intelligence grasped perfectly the full 
scope of the words, “ the will of him that 
sent me.” All that they implied was before 
Him every moment of His life. The Babe 
in the stable knew as well as the Master in 


120 



OBEDIENCE TO GOD 


the temple what was required of Him. No 
defect of intelligence could lessen for Him 
the gravity of His task, or soften the suffer¬ 
ing that obedience necessitated. 

While He knew at all times what His 
Father wished Him to do, so likewise did 
He fully realize the countless difficulties in 
the way of obeying the Divine will. His 
human nature had its repugnance, its fear 
and its instinctive tendency to shrink from 
danger and pain, both mental and physical, 
otherwise it would not have been true 
human nature. And He had to fight off 
this human frailty, not only at the moment 
of accomplishing each part of the work of 
Redemption, but many times before the 
actual conflict, for there was always in His 
life the struggle of anticipation. 

Even in the home at Nazareth, where the 
long days of quiet, peaceful toil, and the 
evening's respite from labor in the company 
of Mary and Joseph had every appearance 
of perfect happiness, there was in the mind 


121 


OBEDIENCE TO GOD 

of the God-child, the foreknowledge of His 
sufferings, and in His heart the foretaste of 
the final struggles; while His will, even 
then, heard plainly the voice of God and 
stood up sternly and unfalteringly against 
the fears of the flesh. 

And at last when the anticipatory 
struggle of the hidden life merged into the 
final conflict made necessary by the actual 
accomplishment of His mission, the battle 
with Satan was not fought out once and for 
all, for example, in the wilderness at the 
threshold ‘ of the public ministry, but con¬ 
tinued raging until the end. 

Before the obedience that made this 
struggle a constantly victorious one, the 
submission He gave to the priests of Israel, 
perfect though it was, pales into compara¬ 
tive insignificance. Others saw His com¬ 
pliance with the Law of Moses; none but 
the Father witnessed the more immediate 
and far more significant subjection of the 
Man-God to the Divine will. It was an in- 


122 



COURTESY E. A. PERRY COPYRIGHTED 

THE BABE IN THE STABLE 




































































































































































OBEDIENCE TO GOD 

terior struggle, and, therefore, all the more 
terrible, for the stress of battle, kept within 
the citadel of the soul, grew in intensity by 
reason of its concentration. 

And after all, the battle-ground where 
the real conflict is fought between the 
forces that make for obedience, and the 
frailty of the flesh that strives to flee from 
the hardship, the self-restraint made neces¬ 
sary by submission to a higher law, is 
always hidden in the hearts of men. Even 
though actions, words or omissions be 
necessary to complete some forms of obedi¬ 
ence, still, many a conflict must rage within 
us before these external signs of submis¬ 
sion are given and the command is fully 
obeyed. And so it is that our Lord’s inter¬ 
nal submission, with all that it implies, 
makes a far stronger appeal to our hearts, 
and is far more valuable as an example for 
our imitation, than His external obedience, 
indispensable and perfect as the latter is. 

The laws that are laid down for us by the 
123 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


Statej the commands that come from the 
lips of parents, the external regulations im¬ 
posed upon us by the Church, the precepts 
of God that deal immediately with our 
words, acts and omissions—all these re¬ 
quire, as a foundation to secure for them 
a perfect and persevering compliance on 
our part, interior obedience and submission 
of the will. 

But then, deeper still than these manifes¬ 
tations of authority that appeal to our outer 
life, how many are the phases of God’s law 
that deal directly and solely with our inner 
life. How often must the will be kept from 
willing that which is not lawful, even 
though no sign of this would ever appear 
upon the surface! How often must the 
heart be kept from desiring that which is 
evil, even while we know the attainment of 
the evil desired is impossible! How often 
must the mind be kept from thinking cer¬ 
tain thoughts that God and ourselves alone 
would ever know! And all this must be 
124 


OBEDIENCE TO GOD 


done because of the Divine “ thou must 
not,” which we are bound to obey. The 
lower nature seeks to make us break the 
law; the passions fiercely urge us on; the 
voice of evil speaks to us in smooth, per¬ 
suasive tone, telling us that no one will be 
the wiser if we yield. 

And so the battle rages in the soul, and 
oftentimes, wearied with the strife, we long 
for human sympathy, for some word of en¬ 
couragement from those who love us. Yet 
none but the Master’s eye can gaze into the 
depths of our souls, and clearly see the 
gravity of the conflict we are waging, and 
the need we have for help. And none but 
the Master’s hand can sustain the will that 
else would many times falter and even fall, 
so fierce are the onslaughts made upon it. 
For the Master Himself has often fought 
interior conflicts far more severe than ours, 
even though there was no possibility of sin 
on His part; and He knows by actual ex¬ 
perience how savage and tireless are the 
125 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 

forces of the flesh when Satan uses them to 
break down our wills. 

And especially to be feared are those 
attacks against the will that arise from dis¬ 
couragement, from the heaviness and fre¬ 
quency of the sorrows and trials that God 
permits us to suffer. These attacks are 
the more formidable because they are so 
insidious, so deadening in their influence. 
There is in them no temptation to will or 
desire or think anything openly and posi¬ 
tively evil. The Divine “ thou must not ” 
does not strike so strongly upon the ears in 
these trials, because often the attention of 
the soul is so taken up by the trial itself 
that it does not hear so keenly the call to 
resistance, nor can it see so clearly the 
dangers of non-resistance. The temptation 
seems almost harmless. We are urged by 
our weary, strife-torn nature simply to give 
up, to let our sorrows, our reverses force 
us back. 

But then, once we yield, we are quickly 

126 


OBEDIENCE TO GOD 


whirled into the current of sin. Our first 
step backward shows us more clearly the 
enormity of our failure to obey the voice 
of the Creator, urging us always to watch 
and pray, always to bear up bravely under 
our afflictions, even when we see no relief 
before us, no advantage in continuing the 
struggle any longer. 

How often our Saviour has fought in' 
conflicts of this kind, God alone knows. 
For He only has heard the countless prayers 
poured forth on these occasions by His 
Divine Son, prayers that rose to the starry 
heavens from many a spot hallowed by 
the lonely presence of the Master: from 
the house-top of Nazareth, from the field 
and mountain-side, from the lake-shore 
and the bank of the Jordan, from the desert 
of temptation, and at last from the garden 
of agony—Gethsemane. 

If we would see an example of obedience 
rendered under the most adverse circum¬ 
stances; if we would witness the most formi- 
127 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


dable effort ever made by Satan to thwart the 
will of God, the fiercest interior struggle ever 
fought, the most glorious victory ever won 
on the battle-ground of the soul, the most 
perfect and complete submission ever given 
to the Father, we must go in spirit to Mount 
Olivet and there contemplate the beginning 
of our Lord’s Passion, His agony and 
prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

It is growing late in the evening of the 
first Holy Thursday. Twelve men pass 
silently through a gate in the eastern wall 
of Jerusalem. They descend the slope of 
Mount Moriah, cross the little bridge over 
the brook Cedron, and then go a short dis¬ 
tance up the base of Mount Olivet. They 
reach a garden called Gethsemane and then 
pause. By the light of the moon we can see 
that the party consists of Jesus and eleven 
apostles. The face of our Lord is pale and 
drawn. A look of sadness fills His eyes 
as He turns to His followers, tells Peter, 
James and John to accompany Him, and 
128 


OBEDIENCE TO GOD 


then goes a few steps further till He comes 
to the entrance of a sort of grotto or cave. 
Here He leaves the chosen three, enters 
alone and begins to pray. 

Often before, in the silence of the night, 
He has come to this same spot, and many 
an hour of fervent supplication has been 
spent here. But all the fervor of former 
prayers cannot equal the intensity of the 
petition He now pours forth; nor can all 
the sorrows of His previous life bear any 
comparison with the great grief that now 
almost overwhelms Him. “ He began to 
fear and to be heavy—to grow sorrowful 
and to be sad.” 

Let us go down into the grotto and watch 
the agony of our Lord. In the intensity of 
His sorrow and the fervor of His supplica¬ 
tion, He has fallen flat upon the ground. 
There, prostrate, with His sacred face 
pressed to the earth, He prays to His 
heavenly Father. In the dim light that 
comes through the entrance to the grotto, 
129 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


we can barely see His form outstretched 
before us. At first He lies motionless and 
silent; the great storm of grief and desola¬ 
tion and sadness is gathering above Him, 
heavy and low, ready at any moment to 
break. Outside, the full moon shines with 
a bright, peaceful light. The leaves of the 
olive trees are gently stirred by the breeze. 
No voice is heard in the garden. The three 
apostles, wearied by the events of the day, 
have fallen asleep where their Master left 
them. From the temple-area and the 
Roman barracks off to the west, come 
sounds of an activity unusual at this late 
hour—the clank of armor, the dull thud of 
heavy footsteps, now and then a command 
hoarsely given. The Jews and Romans are 
preparing to seize Jesus. 

But, outside of this, the city is silent; the 
world is silent, oblivious of the one Man 
sorrowing alone in a far-off corner of 
Palestine. Just as careless and indifferent 
are men and women now as they were 
130 


OBEDIENCE TO GOD 


thirty-three years before, when, in the 
silence of the night, this same Man of Sor¬ 
rows came into the world and began the 
work He is now so soon to finish. 

And this indifference is what pains our 
Lord the most. There He lies alone, and 
the world He came to save knows Him 
not. He is willing, most anxious to suffer 
for men; but oh, how He longs for a little 
sympathy from them. For three years He 
has preached and taught all over Judea and 
Galilee. Thousands have heard the words 
that fell from His lips. Thousands have 
thronged about Him and seen the miracles 
that He wrought and tasted His bounty. 
The sick and the poor, the orphan and the 
outcast, the aged and the infirm—all have 
experienced the effects of His goodness and 
power. He has worked and prayed for 
this Jewish people night and day; and now 
on the morrow they will put Him to death. 

The sounds of preparation coming from 
within the city walls fall upon His ears, 
131 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


and help to call up in His imagination a 
most clear and terrifying picture of those 
million forms of suffering that are to be 
crowded into the next few hours. A 
shudder passes over His frame. Low 
moans come from His lips. Beads of per¬ 
spiration spring from Him—are they per¬ 
spiration? Look closer. They are dark 
and thick. It is blood that comes from 
every pore of His sacred body, and falls to 
the ground. “ And his sweat became as 
drops of blood trickling down upon the 
ground/’ So great a grief no man ever 
suffered. 

And why should He endure this agony 
for so ungrateful a world? What good, 
He asks Himself, has all My love effected? 
Not one man in a million cares for Me and 
My sorrow. Humanity spurns My prof¬ 
fered help, and goes about its business un¬ 
mindful of Me. Oh, but the future, does 
not that hold some consolation for Him? 
Will not men in after years make amends 
132 


OBEDIENCE TO GOD 

for all this suffering by their love and 
devotion? No, He is denied even this. 
For lo, the veil is lifted from the future. 
He looks down the long vista of years to 
come. The centuries unroll themselves 
before Him. Generation after generation 
passes before His eyes. He sees the world 
of all time and space outstretched before 
Him. And what does all this reveal? In¬ 
gratitude, coldness, yea, even contempt. He 
sees the sins of all ages to come. Every 
human being passes by Him in that awful 
hour, the countless multitudes of the sons 
of man. And each one bears in his arms a 
burden, the foul burden of sin; and as He 
passes our Lord, he places this hideous 
mass on the back of the prostrate Saviour 
pressing the sacred countenance still closer 
to the ground. And the Divine Victim 
knows each creature as he hurries on, and 
feels each single sin of the millions that 
rest upon Him. He sees His sacred body 
trampled under foot, He hears His holy 
133 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


name uttered blasphemously on the streets, 
He sees the sacrilegious sinner receiving 
Holy Communion in the state of mortal 
sin, He sees the great majority of mankind 
thoughtless of eternity, busied only about 
this life. And these are the creatures for 
whom He is suffering, for whom on the 
morrow He is to die. No wonder the cry 
bursts from Him: “ My Father, if it be 
possible, let this chalice pass from me. 
Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou 
wilt. ,, 

Weighed down by agony and desolation 
of mind, He thinks of His apostles. At 
least with them He will find consolation. 
He rises, goes out into the garden, and sees 
His friends and companions from whom 
He expected comfort and sympathy lying 
asleep on the ground. The moonlight fall¬ 
ing upon Him weaves a crown of silver 
about that sacred brow which to-morrow 
a crown of thorns shall pierce. He stands 
silent, gazing at the prostrate forms. And 
134 


OBEDIENCE TO GOD 


then from His lips fall the tenderly spoken, 
burning words of reproach, “ Simon, 
sleepest thou? couldst thou not watch one 
hour with me ? ” But now, even now when 
His own sorrow is almost breaking His 
heart, He has time to think of their spiritual 
safety; He fears for them, “Why sleep 
you ? Arise, pray, lest you enter into 
temptation. ,, 

“ And going away again, he prayed, 
saying the same words.” The conflict is 
renewed, raging still more violently, for 
now He knows that even His chosen 
disciples are unconscious of His struggle, 
unable to share His sorrow. He must 
bear it alone. The thought almost over¬ 
whelms Him. Again He comes forth from 
the grotto, and again He finds His apostles 
sinking into slumber. A third time He 
leaves them, and a third time He prays. 

And now, at last, the victory is won. 
Slowly the storm of strife subsides. Resig¬ 
nation writes its imprint on‘His features. 
135 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


A holy calm comes over His sacred coun¬ 
tenance. The drops of blood cease to flow 
from his body. He becomes perfectly 
quiet, remains prostrate a few moments 
longer, “ My Father, if this chalice may not 
pass away, but I must drink it, thy will be 
done.” And with the last words of this 
prayer on His lips, “ thy will be done,” He 
rises slowly and walks with firm step to His 
apostles: “ Sleep ye now, and take your 
rest. It is enough: the hour is come; be¬ 
hold the Son of man shall be betrayed into 
the hands of sinners. Rise up, let us go. 
Behold, he that will betray me is at hand.” 

And so to us also does the Master speak, 
“ rise up, let us go.” Would that we could 
heed these words, and rise with a firm will 
and a strong heart, and go to meet the 
enemy, as He did, with the words, “ thy 
will be done,” upon our lips. But not 
always are we thus prepared for the trials 
that affect our outer life. Rather do we 
often flee from the conflict; or even, in the 

136 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


presence of the foe, deny our allegiance, 
as St. Peter did, because he failed to watch 
and pray, but slept, while His Master 
fought out the interior battle that brought 
Him victory. 

And unless we watch and pray and wage 
within us the warfare that often tries the 
souls of men, we cannot expect to act with 
the obedience that alone will make us brave 
in the visible battles of life. And this in¬ 
terior warfare is hidden, as our Lord’s 
was, from all eyes save the Father’s. If the 
secrets of hearts were revealed, if the souls 
of God’s creatures were bared to our eyes, 
how many an hour of agony would they tell 
us about, how many a battle-field would lie 
before us with its eloquent traces of the 
conflicts fought between the will and the 
lower nature—sad struggles that up to now 
had been hidden by the calm brow of resig¬ 
nation and the clear gaze of hope and the 
cheery word and bright smile forced 
bravely forth from a loving and considerate 
137 


OBEDIENCE TO GOD 


heart that sought to spare others the sight 
of a combat that God alone could help 
them sustain. 

Alone with the Master, prostrate by His 
side in our Gethsemane, we must fight 
thus many a time ere the will that is so 
weak, and yet so proud of its liberty, can 
be brought to subjection. We are alone, 
our friends cannot help us as we wish to be 
helped; yet our Model also was alone: “ I 
looked for one that would grieve together 
with me, but there was none; and for one 
that would comfort me, and I found 
none.” 

And the struggle lasts so long. It seems 
as if God does not hear our prayer for 
strength to submit with resignation to His 
will, for strength to do what He commands 
when the flesh fights against it, and enemies 
oppose it, and even friends disapprove of 
it. But yet, Jesus “ being in an agony 
prayed the longer.” The greater His suffer¬ 
ing and the longer it lasted, the more fer¬ 
vently did He pray. 

138 


THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 


“ And there appeared to Him an angel 
from heaven, strengthening him.” God the 
Father sent His angel to strengthen the 
human nature of His Divine Son; and that 
same Father watches over our efforts to 
yield obedience to His law. And He will 
send an angel to us also. He will send us 
His grace, His all-sufficient help. With 
this we may feel certain of a final victory, 
that natural powers alone could not win. 
If only we take the one, indispensable step, 
try earnestly to bend our wills to His, we 
may look to Him for the rest. He will 
soften our hearts that have been so hard, 
enlighten our minds that have been so dark, 
and turn seeming defeat into glorious tri¬ 
umph. For has not He Himself said. “ an 
obedient man shall speak of victory?” 
And then at last shall we come forth from 
our garden of desolation and conflict, with 
the Master's peace in our souls, and on our 
lips His words of perfect obedience, “ thy 
will be done.” 


139 


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